War Thunder adds 128-player infantry battles on new map

Gaijin Entertainment will add fully controllable soldiers and 64v64 (128-player) matches to War Thunder as part of its upcoming Infantry update. The developer plans a third closed beta in July and is accepting applications for players on their preferred platforms.

The July test will introduce light troop vehicles that carry up to five players, with passengers able to take the driver seat. Players will be able to control independent first-person soldiers outside of vehicles for the first time; until now the game has focused on combat using more than 2,500 vehicles across land, air and sea and over 140 historical maps.

The beta will include a new Central African map called Kivu. The developer described Kivu as roughly four times the size of earlier Infantry test locations, with five capture points and its own mission mode. In a developer post, Gaijin wrote that it has ‘put significant effort into server optimizations, so we plan to once again launch a 64-vs-64 player format (128 players per session) to ensure everything is running smoothly.’

Testers will see larger battlefields and updated respawn rules. The studio plans changes to the game’s four soldier classes, including revised weapon presets. Specialized equipment such as rocket-propelled grenades, man-portable air-defense systems and drones will not be available to every soldier; access will be limited by class.

New vehicles and weapons will appear across multiple tech trees, with items listed for the test including the M4A1, Kord 6P67, XM5, PP-19, LAV-AD and T-90M. Light troop vehicles are intended to move small squads quickly while keeping the game’s vehicle-focused combat intact.

Arcade Battles will return in the test with modified marker display logic intended to reflect a player’s line of sight. Movement speed penalties for soldiers carrying heavy equipment have been adjusted. The update notes describe separate graphics settings for infantry play and an alternative weapon grip option added to the settings menu.

War Thunder launched in 2013 as a free-to-play MMO combining land, air and sea combat. The Infantry update adds on-foot soldier control to the existing vehicle roster and expands combined-arms gameplay to support larger player counts.