DayZ was announced as a standalone title just over a month ago, and already a tentative release window has been announced. What is that release window? Why, before the end of the year of course! Not only that, but it’s going to be cheap, too.
Speaking at the Eurogamer Expo today, creator Dean Hall announced:
“It has to be out before the end of the year. Not just because we’ve committed to it but in order to achieve what we have to do. It has to be. There’s no ‘we hope it is’; it has to be. And it’s going to be cheap. We’ve decided that we don’t need to sell a heap of units in order for us to be OK with where it’s going. The more units we sell of it the more ambitious we get, because the project has the better resources.
“I like to think we’re taking cautious and sensible steps at the moment. I don’t really like cautious and sensible. DayZ as a mod wasn’t cautious and sensible. But our first few steps have to be that. And if we can achieve that in December, then in January and February we can start to do all the cool stuff, move to more ambitious features.”
So why are they putting the game out so quickly? Well, to put it bluntly, he’s afraid of copy cats. Perhaps someone will make a better version of what he’s created, and then what would he do?
“I could stand up here and be very critical of anyone who does a clone copy of the game. What would that actually achieve other than making me look like a dick? It’s not going to result in a better game.”
Good point, sir.
So what are they focusing on most at this stage? Hackers (the main issue), performance optimization, and bugs. Hall also mentioned some ideas he would like to develop for the game:
- diseases spreading through feces and vomit;
- removing the UI;
- household weapons;
- “allowing people to craft splints”;
- and vehicles, “a longer-term, ‘end-game’ feature to implement.”
Check out his full presentation below (once it’s been processed):
