Many of you have expressed your concerns about the future of the IL-2 Great Battles Series and today we’ve received a small update on what the team are doing and how things are looking for the future. That is coupled together with the release of a documentary that looks 8-years back at the start of the Great Battles series.
Serious Games documentary
The first thing we have to report on is the Series Games documentary about the making of IL-2 Sturmovik. The series was filmed back in 2015 by director Andrei Samoteikin. Apparently it saw limited distribution at that point. Only just now is being released to a wider audience.
Together with the announcement we get a quote from Albert Zhiltsov, CEO of 1C Game Studios, talking about the documentary series.
“IL-2 is a game that always had some true romantics as its developers. It’s not just a game, but a fully-fledged flight training simulator. Only those who are truly dedicated to their craft could create something like this. I hope that seeing myself and the rest of our team as we were 8 years ago will be interesting, not just for myself, but to all the fans of our series.”
Albert Zhiltsov, CEO of 1C Game Studios
I’ve only had a chance to watch the first few minutes so far but it is nostalgic for me to see Oleg Maddox, the name behind the very beginning of the IL-2 Sturmovik series, getting some screen time right from the start.
This documentary I suspect would feel more relevant had it actually released more widely in 2015. The scope of the game has changed and I suspect many fan’s investment with the series has changed over the course of the last several years too.
If you are interested in following the rest of the series, 5 episodes are planned with the first one out today and then the remaining four coming out every week until October 20th.
- Episode 1 — September 22, 2023
- Episode 2 — September 29, 2023
- Episode 3 — October 6, 2023
- Episode 4 — October 13, 2023
- Episode 5 — October 20, 2023
A word on the next steps in the series
A frequent concern among many readers here and in the community in general remains what is happening with the IL-2 Sturmovik series. We’ve, of course, just seen the big announcement from Team Fusion Simulations today so we know that that corner of the franchise is definitely moving forward. So, what about Great Battles?
Well we have a response to that in a post made by LukeFF on the official forums and quoting Daniil Tuseev (aka Han), IL-2’s producer. Here’s the quote:
Hello. The reason for the silence is simple – we do not want to give any promises or make any announces on something that we have no 100% ensure it is doable and will be released. We have had such mistakes before with “Marshall” and “Fuel systems” and we don’t want to repeat those mistakes. The next project has been in development for a year already and development is going according to plan. Many fabulous technologies are done already and now content development is in progress. And this new content has brand-new quality standards. But the time period of the war which will be simulated, main game mode features, a long list of new features in airplane systems and damage simulation, and new ammunition – these aspects of the new project in development but details are not established for 100%. And you will ask us about them in the next hour after the announcement.
So we will announce when everything will be established in the new project design and we will be sure everything we announce is doable. What I can assure you right now – a year ago we planned to double the power of the team that works on the new IL-2 in a year. And now, after a year, this objective is completed and the reinforced team is fully ahead to our main objective – the new IL-2 release. Everything we have planned for the first year is done. And this year – is a significant part of the development timeline which it’s not too long in total. So we are strongly sure that the new sim will be completed in time.
Daniil Tuseev (aka Han)
Unsurprisingly, there is something in the works and together with this and past statements about the increasing size of the team, it does reconfirm that things are in the works but that they are not ready to talk about it. This is a challenging position as we’ve had a near constant feed of information for several years up until this year and I know that has many of you concerned and looking at other experiences.
Lots of us have guesses on what this new project is. I maintain that a logical course of action would be to go and do the Korean War but we’ll see what they ultimately announce when that time comes.
I suspect that the timelines for the already announced additional Great Battles content, stretching into mid 2024, gives us a sense on where they expect to wrap up development and then begin talking about the new series. The WACO CG-4A, La-5 Series 38, Ta152, I-153 and Spitfire IXc are all expected between now and then together with a lengthier list of WWI types.
More on all of this as it develops!
Stormbirds 
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