Heroes & Generals 2019 Look Ahead Interview

Interview with Jean-Marc Broyer, CEO at RETO-MOTO

A staple I do in all interviews in order to start things off is to ask that you elaborate a bit about your game (s) that people might not know?

Broyer: Heroes & Generals WWII is an all-out WAR experience where thousands of players are fighting one massive clash of nations. The first to capture 15 cities takes the glory. You can fight for the United States, Germany, or the Soviet Union, engage as Infantry, Recon, Tank Crew, Paratrooper or Pilot, unlock more than 65 weapons and 70 vehicles and planes.

All battles influence the outcome of the war. Players can ultimately become a General to strategize and deploy resources in battle for other players. Heroes & Generals WWII was released late 2016 and has 14 million registered users worldwide and counting. Localized in 10 languages, it is available on Steam (Global) – Mail.ru (RU) – and on our own platform (Global) at www.heroesandgenerals.com.
Heroes & Generals 2019 Look Ahead Interview
With there being a recent update, could you elaborate a bit on what that brings to the game?

Broyer: The Stronghold Update released Dec 11th brings the new "Krepost Russian Encounter" map, Inspired by the famous Brest battle. Loaded with history, we believe this is urban combat at its best.3 new tank destroyers have also been added, The German Panzerjäger V Jagdpanther, the Soviet SU-100 and the US M36 Tank Destroyer. All of those bringing formidable new firepower.

We have also improved the recoil animation for all hand weapons, this has been a community request for quite some time and was well received. Finally, we have refreshed our visual identity. It is part of our vision for the future, which is to deliver high quality and elevate our game to a true franchise. So far we have received an overwhelmingly positive response to this update. This is only the beginning as we are preparing for 2019 and more releases are coming around the corner.

A fresh ammo and armor system was a big part of recent changes, what drove the decision to make these adjustments and how do you feel this has affected combat?

Broyer: The last Major Update “Deploy! Drive! Destroy!” was released October 2nd 2018 and introduced a new flexible deploy system, a new armor system, a new damage system, an updated vehicle handling system and a new terrain system. We have also reduced battle launch time by ~30 seconds in that update.

This was a very large update that couldn’t have been released without the help of our community who spent time testing and giving us feedback on our public test server. This update was long awaited, and it was necessary to keep the game modern and make it more exciting for players. “Deploy! Drive! Destroy!” is a new opportunity for deeper tank combat tactics (durability VS hit specific damage) and new strategic choices for players when picking vehicles before joining a battle, taking into consideration the new terrain and the vehicle handling, as an example.
Heroes & Generals Jump Screenshot
Another larger change is to the terrain system, what sort of affect on general transportation has this brought and are further tweaks to the environments planned in the future?

Broyer: The new terrain system implemented on all maps makes sure that roads, grass and mud affect driving just like they should. A total of 11 different terrain types improved the realismof speed and handling for all vehicles.

This update evolves the game to a deeper experience where the level of immersion is higher. The update also gives us the ability to make changes in a more dynamic way for terrain and vehicles. In fact since the update, we’ve continued to listen to player feedback and we’ve released a number of patches to optimize player experience.

For a general overview of the last year, what do you feel were some of the bigger changes and updates made to the game?

Broyer: We have spent some time updating our pipelines and tech early 2018, this helped us modernize our backend infrastructure and prepare for more regular content releases. We have released 3 Major Updates this year including “Skirmish at Khutor” on June 21st 2018, “Deploy! Drive! Destroy!” on October 2nd 2018 and finally the “Stronghold” update on December 11th 2018.

In between all those Major Updates, we have been busy making multiple minor updates with additional content, and changes mainly focused on balancing and community requests around UI changes and optimizations. Heroes & Generals River Screenshot
Looking forward, are there any key areas of the game that are being considered at for future updates, and or improvements?

Broyer: For the future, focussing on more regular and meaningful updates for the players. We will redouble focus on what the players need, we know they have a lot of requests and we are working hard to deliver as many as we can. We will also focus on improving our User Interface and User Experience overall throughout 2019 as it requires some love and clarity. We will streamline choices, navigation, and communicate progression better.

For those looking at jumping into the game, what are some elements that you feel make Heroes & Generals stand out from the crowd?

Broyer: Heroes & Generals WWII is the ultimate F2P large scale multiplayer shooter experience. The only WWII game with thousands of players engaging in battles and fighting one massive war of nations with the objective to capture 15 major cities to take the glory.

Has the team considered porting the game over to consoles at this point?

Broyer: Of course, we are interested in expending our growth to other platforms. We will do this when the time is right for us.

Heroes & Generals Combat Screenshot
Lastly I would like to leave a spot for you to say something or go over anything I might have missed during the interview?

Broyer: I want to take the opportunity to thank our players and the entire community around Heroes & Generals WWII, we are seeing record numbers in terms of engagement and great feedback on the new content we just delivered with the Stronghold update. Stay tuned and thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about Heroes & Generals WWII, see you in game!

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Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner