DayZ free-to-play was considered
During his GDC talk chronicling the ascension of the DayZ mod, creator Dean "Rocket" Hall revealed that there was a time – albeit a brief window – when he considered turning DayZ into a free-to-play game. "Every one likes having four Lamborghinis parked in their driveway," Hall joked.
"When I looked at signing with a bunch of companies, some of them were interested in free-to-play. We're talking a lot of money, like stupid money. I felt like – I just knew it wouldn't work. DayZ is about survival and not buying your way into it. I still think there's room for free-to-play games – I've got one idea I think could actually work quite well as a free-to-play game – but it's like trying to cram a round peg into a square hole."
Hall also touched on the infamous shops found in some free-to-play games, where players can purchase good gear or bypass certain mechanics by throwing down real money. "The DayZ experience is about what you find in the world, so introducing a shop and things like that, like cosmetic items. It's not about cosmetic items, there are no cosmetic items in DayZ – it's not like, 'I worked at Burger King for an hour and bought this hat,' you know; it's 'I found that hat in a barn fight.'"
DayZ standalone is currently in development at Bohemia Interactive. The alpha build isn't expected to launch until at least June.
