Update: CptFancyPants has removed the forum post, and refused to meet our requirements for protecting our sources, despite being offered the same evidence as the Reddit moderators.

Kitsuga.com reported yesterday on the rift between mail.ru and OEI. Now we bring you part two of our ongoing series Obsidian and My.com have lied to you. Last time we revealed that mail.ru had not paid for the finished patch 2.0. Which Obsidian had completed most of the work on in December when layoffs were announced by OEI. We are now able to bring you additional details from inside of Obsidian. Last night after we published our first story another source came forward in order to corroborate our first story.

The new source that came forward and spoke under condition of of Anonymity out of fear of reprisal from their employers. We have cross referenced additional the information and interviewed the other sources again to verify that each of their points are correct. We now know a lot more than we did before as well as what embellishments were made by our sources previously.

While our original source admitted some of the things they said may have been embellished, the second source has been able to confirm the major points in the interview below.

Please note speakers are listed and the source is kept anonymous for the purposes of ensuring that no one receives harm or damage for coming forward with this information to the press. This effort was made by the second source to come forward to clear up any misunderstandings from the previous article. In addition, these sources wanted to remove any tension possible between The Press, The Community of Armored Warfare’s players, Obsidian, My.Com, and Mail.RU as well as the facts to be set straight. After much verification with other sources whom came forward and getting them to admit to any overstating or blowing out of proportion the initial facts we receive, we now have more information. Any edits to the source’s wording is only for grammar, formatting, or spell checking. We are now able to confirm the following:

*Most of Obsidian’s work on the patch was finished except final polish and final re-balancing

*mail.ru refused to pay for their work

*a settlement was reached

*The removal of Obsidian Employees in December and hiring of mail.ru employees at the same time was to make their new develop team for Armored Warfare.

*My.com is not developing anything, all development is being done by mail.ru

*My.com’s involvement with Armored Warfare has been minimal for month and looks to be shrinking or removed entirely in the coming future

Here is the interview in it’s entirety with 2 sources (Please note Fiaura is spoken during these interviews while sources are written to help maintain their anonymity):

Interview quotes and words = Black

Notes about conversation or conclusions reached by interviewers = red

(Previous Conversation stated as Off the Record by Source and for Source’s protection maintaining that statement moving forward).

Source Speaking:

“Ok that’s established. Let me give ya the info to prove my points. Patch process goes like this. We take 4-7 weeks to develop a patch then it goes through an internal review process. Where things are checked in and then tested by OE internal QA members. After its tested internally a build is generated and sent overseas to mail.ru for external testing. This is where localization is checked, additional bugs are found and mail.ru says yay or nay on features/balance. Depending on how many “blockers” they generate, this can extend the patch time considerably.”

Fiaura asked for Clarification on term Blockers:

“Blockers” = Potential bugs and changes as well as balancing issues

Source:

“In the case of 0.19, the patch was the longest one OE ever worked on. It is public record that the RU PTS received another patch that the western PTS did not. This patch was the latest deployed build OE had ready at that time and had some of the changes like the announced cupola damage reduction. Not all tiers had that damage reduction pass though, which is why it sparked some initial confusion when some vehicles had the reduction and others didn’t. Beyond this patch, there was never another public patch delivered before mail.ru pulled the plug. After last week, all development by OE on AW in a public sense ceased. It was not weeks prior to that.”

Fiaura:

Were other team members then terminated or moved to other projects? I need clarification of what happened from their side of the story?

Source:

“Well you saw the public announcement of employees laid off back in December. That was mail.ru implementing what would turn out to be half of their dev team into the pipeline full time.”

(Outside of conversation: It is my opinion this was the first of many moves by mail.ru in order to remove Obsidian Entertainment from the project. I conclude that these team members whom spoke to me or were already on other projects then were these laid off in December.)

Source:

“Prior to that they had been only “adding” small bits to the game while developing tank models simultaneously. The Chieftain 900 is an example of an externally developed vehicle. You will know which ones are made by Mail.ru, it’s fairly clear.”

Fiaura:

-Who is MRG?: mail.ru is mail.ru.

(Edits were made to correct MRG to mail.ru)

Source:

“Ok so yeah. That gives you a sense where the patch is at now. Any development of 0.19 going forward is sure to have a combination of baseline OE changes and mail.ru adaptations. 0.20 will most likely be some OE vehicles mixed with Mail.ru models and beyond that primarily Mail.ru with some leftover OE.”

“I assume leftover. Since they were never used and OE can’t complete them now. Mail.ru has its own content in the works, but its quality is questionable. That’s all I have to say.”

Fiaura:

-Can you give a date for when OEI stopped work?

Source:

“Last week.”

(Note this statement seems indicated they stopped work before the Saturday Announcement.)

Fiaura:

-Do you have any idea how much work needed to be done before you stopped?

Source:

“General balancing of most tweaked features, most content was in.”

Comment outside of conversation: (This reads to me as they were almost done. This explains why other sources stated they were done or overstated the amount of work that had been done versus how much was left to be done.)

Fiaura:

Did my.com/mail.ru pay OEI for it’s work?

Source:

“As far as I am aware, the two have reached an agreement on payment.”

Fionna:

Have you seen any documentation or is this hearsay on payment?

Comment Outside Conversation:

Yes, I have documentation but official comment off the record

(My words not source, source stated said anything on this matter beyond yes was OFF record.)

Fiaura:

Is there work done by OEI that we will never see?

Source:

“I think there was a miscommunication between you and the other source potentially. Or they are pulling your chain, idk. To hide such a finished patch from everyone else involved would be an incredible feat and something OE on a moral level would not do.”

(Commentary on this: I (Fiaura) did ask the original sources about this and while in their minds the patch was complete they did admit some additional work needed to be done. There was No full version of the original patch ready to be released. I believe at the time, they were emotionally high strung over the subject more than anything).

“It’s hard to say because Mail.ru can choose to roll back what they choose from the patch. It would be difficult, but possible. I honestly have 0 clue on what the final 0.19 patch will look like. Even less the future. There’s plenty that OE developed for Mail.ru that never saw the light of day. That’s largely why sometimes there would be major stretches of no content. Mail would just have OE start on something then stop it mid development. PvE saw the most of this.”

(Question and Answer Struck from record to protect source and at source’s request. Conversation continues below).

Fiaura:

Do you believe mail.ru planned this from the start?

Source:

“They probably planned it for a while. Just needed a few excuses to make their case to upper management.”

Fiaura:

Do you know if there are plans to Shut Down the EU Server? The NA server?

Source:

“0 clue.”

(Both questions answered with this).

Fiaura:

On Happier thoughts What are you personally most proud of from this project?

Source:

“OE and even the guys at My.com who were in the trenches did care about the game to a higher degree than I think anyone will ever truly realize. They never really got the publisher developer relationship needed to make such a game succeed. It sucks seeing people hate on the game and feeling hopeless in your ability to make a meaningful difference in the time you are given.”

Fiaura:

Thank you for coming forward and I hope my criticism was helpful and honest with you guys and none of you took it personally.

Source:

“Yeah no. The team got it. I got it. We all did. We were hard on ourselves. But at the end of the day, we had a lot less to work with on a leash that wasn’t as much biased as it was dysfunctional. Alright?”

Fiaura:

How was the original article received at Obsidian?

Source:

“I am not sure. I am cutoff from it because of legal reasons. I hope you guys do right by OE. They deserve it.”

The following is a follow up conversation with another employee. Please understand their name is protected to prevent any damage to themselves or their career and parts will be omitted at their request as the interviewee.

Fiaura:

We will do our best and we will do our best to protect you and our other sources.

Source (Final Words):

“Development would have gone a lot smoother and quicker had OE been able to actually work on what they wanted to internally without being retasked constantly. Leaving features half implemented or never seeing the light of day. This is largely why when it was determined OE needed to do a more comprehensive balance patch it took so long for Mail.ru to come around to the idea. Mail.ru simply did not see it as a priority until around 0.15-0.16

A prime example of a good idea half implemented would be Global Operations. Something which is more in line with the type of mode OE originally wanted to create. Unfortunately Mail.ru does not like to sit on completed features until enough content has been developed for it (see the loot boxes as another example) so like always they rushed to get it out with just one map which caused its own problems.”

–End of Interview 1 with Source 1.

That is the entire conversation that occurred with two sources, Fionna, and myself (Fiaura). We worked very hard through the night with our previous sources to determine what parts of their stories were embellished or false considering this evidence that came forward as well as the current employment status of those individuals in relationship to the company.

A second source wanted to speak up and talk about other situations and provide additional clarification, source 2’s interview is below:

Conversation with Source 2:

Source 2:

“What are your thoughts on the situation?”

Fiaura:

Considering I just released a load of insider information today. Ummm….I think the game is done.

Source 2:

“Understood. It had a lot of potential for sure.”

Fiaura:

It still does but I have no faith in mail.ru to develop a game due to their past failures and their lack of experience.

Source 2:

“One thing to make clear is my.com isn’t developing anything no matter what the press release says. Mail.ru is. There is very little my.com staff even on the project anymore.”

“mostly contract.”

(This indicates to me the ones on contract are only kept on with an ad hoc basis and will not be kept as soon as they are no longer needed.)

Fiaura:

So mail.ru has been taking steps to remove everyone but themselves from the project?

Source 2:

“I will let you decide that, I am just making the point that OEI and the core of my.com AW staff were removed.”

(This confirms a yes to my question to me.)

Fiaura

Sorry to hear that, wish I could offer you more than just condolences

Source 2:

“No worries.” –(Rest of statement requested off record.)

Fiaura:

Fair Enough, without OEI I have no reason to continue to work because it’s a hostile environment from mail.ru and my.com towards me except a few friends.

(In both Companies is implied but not stated here by Fiaura, previous off record comment does explain this better).

Source 2:

“You know I fought to give OEI the space needed to succeed, we were on the same page.”

(Source referring to Fiaura and Themselves).

Fiaura:

Thanks for the things you did for me when you could, that did get me into places in Obsidian to know stuff. I know, I know that now especially with the information handed to me.

Source 2:

“so without them…..”

“Anyway, I have no hard feelings with (Removed for source protection), they are stand up people.”

Fiaura:

Anyway have a good night and if you need someone to talk to, off the record, about whatever let me know.

Source 2:

“Thanks! have a good one.”

–End of Interview 2 with Source 2.

Hopefully this clears up any necessary issues or required facts involving our original story as well as sheds more light on what has been going on behind the closed doors of these companies.

Thank you for reading. I wish Obsidian nothing but the best, as well as hope that my.com and mail.ru can somehow make Armored Warfare a success still.

Article Written by:

Fiaura The Tank Girl

check her out at: www.youtube.com/c/FiauraTheTankGirlGamer