Developer Wargaming is easing open the gates for the World of Tanks Blitz closed beta. World of Tanks Blitz is a mobile version—for iOS and Android—of the free-to-play multiplayer tank-exploding team combat game on PC and Xbox 360.
WoT Blitz sits on separate servers from its PC and Xbox 360 brothers, so player progression on any one version does not affect progression on any other version. WoT Blitz has been (and is being) optimized for mobile, so the maps are smaller, the tech trees are different, and the controls will, of course, vary greatly from mouse-and-keyboard and gamepad.
Touchscreen controls will use onscreen representations of thumbsticks that you may reposition on the screen. Wargaming promises to continually iterate on the touchscreen controls until they get it right. That's a good thing, because maneuvering a tank can be tricky enough on a gamepad, let alone on a touchsreen. The video below shows off some controlled-looking fighting, but close-quarters combat in World of Tanks can be a small nightmare at times for gamepads, so I can only imagine how much trickier that'll be using touchscreen controls.
Regardless, World of Tanks is still an excellent free-to-play model, one I'd encourage hitting every platform. I wish Wargaming the best of luck, but there's no way I'd personally leave WoT on PC or Xbox 360 to play it on mobile. But everyone has their preference, and, also, circumstances may prevent people from playing at a computer or in front of a TV, so, soon there's this.
Instructions for joining the closed beta are on World of Tanks' official website.
