War Thunder to put 128-player boots-on-the-ground battles in action in Infantry's "largest map" yet

War Thunder continues to prove an immensely popular MMO over a decade after its initial launch, with SteamCharts showing more players today than on its 2013 release date. Now, Gaijin Entertainment is working towards the game's next phase, bringing in fully controllable characters in its Infantry update, with up to 128 players in 64v64 battles.

Before that, though, the third phase of its closed beta test will take place in July. While no dates have been revealed right now, applications are open for your preferred platform. The testing phase is slated to drop light car troop vehicles alongside the previously seen boots-on-the-ground combat. These vehicles allow for up to five players to be transported at once, with functionality to change from passenger to driver as needed.

The Infantry update will mark a new turn for the military-based MMO game, adding controllable FPS characters outside of vehicles for the first time. Previously, characters have been controlled through over 2,500 vehicles across armored vehicles, aviation, and naval vessels, with over 140 battle maps from throughout history.

Kivu - a new map set in Central Africa that features five capture points by way of its own mission mode - makes its way into the rotation with the closed beta, too. Gaijin stated that they have "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." It's also said to be the "largest map that has featured in an Infantry CBT to date, being roughly four times the size of the previous locations."

The third testing stage also promises larger battlefields to feature updated resawn rules alongside "significant changes" to the four soldier classes, including weapon presets changing. Additionally, "specialized equipment such as RPGs, MANPADS, and drones [are] no longer available to every soldier."

A new set of vehicles and equipment is available across both the Soviet and US, including the M4A1, Kord 6P67, XM5, PP-19, as well as the LAV-AD and T-90M.

Arcade Battles are also set to make their return, with changes to marker display logic to represent a player's line of sight more intuitively, as well as adjusting how quickly soldiers carrying a lot of equipment move. Players can also look forward to independent graphic settings for the infantry following feedback, and even an alternative weapon grip option has been added.

The full details of what's making an appearance in the test can be found on the game's latest development post, but I think it's safe to say regular players can expect an influx of fans from other franchises checking in to see what Gaijin has got up their sleeve.