IL-2 Sturmovik (series)

IL-2 Sturmovik came out in 2001, featuring 31 flyable aircraft and focusing on the Eastern Front.[5]

The first sequel Forgotten Battles was released in March 2003. In addition to the content from the original game, it added a number of simulated planes and battlefields and introduced the Continuation War theater.[6].IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles was a payable product which didn't require that the original 2001 game was installed. A relevant new feature in Forgotten Battles was the campaign system which for the first time in the IL-2 Sturmovik games started the dynamic mode.

The Forgotten Battles Ace Expansion Pack was released in March 2004, adding 20 new modelled aircraft, 10 of them flyable by the player and with three new maps battlefields (Ardennes, Normandy, Pacific). Not a standalone game, the Ace Expansion Pack was a payable product which required that Forgotten Battles was previously installed.

The Gold Pack was simultaneously released with the Ace Expansion Pack. The Gold Pack reunited Forgotten Battles and Forgotten Battles - Ace Expansion Pack in one single standalone installation game. It was intended to purchasers who never before have bought any game in the IL-2 Sturmovik series.

Released as a stand-alone expansion pack in October 2004, Pacific Fighters focuses on the Pacific theater, with theater-appropriate aircraft, as well as aircraft carriers and battleships.[7]

In May 2006, the Pe-2 Peshka (domestically known as Истории пикирующего бомбардировщика, "Stories of a dive bomber") add-on was released in Europe and North America. This added 95 campaigns, five single missions and five multi-player cooperative missions. Two new flyable aircraft, the Petlyakov Pe-2 (four variants) and the Petlyakov Pe-3 (two variants), as well as a large number of new ground vehicles and artillery were also included. When installed, Pe-2 Peshka is merged with previous games in the series. Pe-2 Peshka was a payable and downloadable patch, mainly intended to players who had accumulated all previous add-ons and patches of the series.

Sturmoviks over Manchuria was a downloadable add-on, mainly focusing on the Manchuria region and the border between the USSR, China and Japanese-occupied Korea. With this new add-on the player could fly aircraft related to the conflicts that broke out in this region at the end of the Second World War. Sturmoviks over Manchuria was a payable and downloadable patch, mainly intended to players who had accumulated all previous add-ons and patches of the series.

Ubisoft released simultaneously both the IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 add-on (DLC) and the IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 compilation pack (in stores) in December 2006 in Europe and Australia; North American release was on 13 March 2007. The standalone compilation DVD takes its title from the add-on. In addition to all of the above games, the compilation includes the three new add-ons released in 2006: Pe-2 Peshka (released in May, see above) and the two add-ons newly included in the package: Sturmoviks over Manchuria and 1946. This raised the total number of aircraft to over 300 with 32 new flyable aircraft, such as Soviet and Japanese aircraft that served during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 1945. Referring to a purely hypothetical continuation of World War II in 1946, the 1946 add-on introduced a few aircraft which in real history never went beyond the design stage (the Heinkel Lerche and the Focke-Wulf Ta 183, for example). Among others, the IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 compilation pack introduced the historically existing Yak-15, MiG-9, MiG-13, Ar-234, N1K-J, J2M, Ki-21, A-20C, Il-10 and many others. It also features nearly 200 new missions and new maps featuring the Kiev region, new parts of the USSR, Manchuria, China, Korea and Burma.

The first game in the new series, released in early access in 2013. The full-content version of IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad was not released until 2014.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Moscow was released in 2016[10]

In September 2016 development of IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban was announced in the official forums[11] IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban was finally released on 13 July 2018.[12]

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Bodenplatte was released in October 2019. The pack includes aircraft that were operated by the USAAF, Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe during Operation Bodenplatte, the last and final large-scale offensive by the Luftwaffe in the closing stages of World War II.[9]

IL-2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus was released in November 2019. For the first time since 2001, Flying Circus is the first game in the IL-2 Sturmovik series that allows players to fly aircraft that are not among World War II era models: indeed, in this instance, the aimed period and plane models are those of World War I.[9]

IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew was released in November 2019. This is the first game in the entire IL-2 Sturmovik series that is not intended to fly aircraft: the pack allows players to seat inside WWII tanks and operate them in the very same simulated environement that is played by users who operate the usual WWII aircraft.[9]