War Thunder's April Fools Prank Tests the Waters for Naval Combat

The developers over at Gaijin Entertainment have excelled themselves with the April Fools gag for their WWII-based flight sim, War Thunder. They've long talked of including naval combat in the game, extending the scope from the skies to the seas, but we'd always assumed this would take the form of ships of a matching era. In their reveal on the first of April, they showed off the first ship to get the War Thunder treatment, and it's Sir Francis Drake's legendary galleon, the Golden Hind!

Whilst this is a spoof, it's also a way for the developer to test the mode, paving the way for sea-based warfare later on down the line. So to that end, rather than just a joke trailer, the company have released this as a full blown mode where players can blast each other's 16th century ships out of the water. A number of other ships of that era have also been created for this mode. The full naval combat is expected at a later date, with era-appropriate ships.