Movie star Vinnie Jones joins World of Tanks in fun crossover for special Holidays event

Vinnie Jones, former professional soccer player turned movie star, has been chosen as the ambassador for World of Tanks‘ upcoming Holiday Ops 2024 event, developer Wargaming announced on Nov. 22.

This traditional end-of-the-year World of Tanks event will see Vinnie Jones join the game and hand special challenges and quests to players, starting on Dec. 1.

“Successfully completing these missions will reward players with themed customization items such as celebrity-inspired tank skins, emblems, inscriptions, decals, medals, unique decorations, avatars, and more,” the press release reads. “Players of World of Tanks and World of Tanks Modern Armor can also recruit Vinnie into their tank crews, with his gruff iconic voice supporting tankers in battles.”

Wargaming also made a funny video with Jones as part of the announcement. The video shows the notorious soccer hardman working for Santa, and is responsible for people who found themselves on the infamous “naughty list” before he left to become a commander in World of Tanks.

“You heard that correct, I’m hanging up my candy canes for good to join the awesome World of Tanks players for Holiday Ops 2024,” Vinnie Jones said. “My days of ‘correcting’ people on the naughty list are over. I am a World of Tanks commander now, and it is going to be ‘Jingle-Bells’ all the way!”

World of Tanks was first released in 2010 and later on, it gained a port for new-gen consoles called World of Tanks Modern Armor. If you have never played it, it’s essentially an MMO in which players control tanks from the 20th century.

Vinnie Jones started life as a hard-as-nails soccer player and is most famously known as a member of Wimbledon’s “Crazy Gang” in the mid-1990s. In fact, Jones ended up with seven red cards in just Premier League 184 matches. When he hung up his boots, he headed off to the silver screen, appearing in movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Mean Machine.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of teaming up with Vinnie Jones to blow stuff in a tank seems like nothing but fun. Though Wargaming didn’t say how long the Holiday Ops will last, it’ll likely be playable at least until the beginning of 2024.