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DayZ standalone sells 1.7 million, update due soon
Humanity's morbid fascination with the zombie apocalypse continues unabated as DayZ creator Dean Hall has revealed that the standalone, retail release of his open-world hit has racked up over 1.7 million sales. Hall revealed this figure earlier today at the ongoing EGX Rezzed event in Birmingham, UK. He also noted that the original version of DayZ, a modification for Bohemia Interactive's military simulation ArmA 2, has been downloaded over two million times to date. But Hall didn't attend the event simply to crow about his game's success. According to Eurogamer, Hall also revealed that DayZ's next update will arrive before the end of April, and that it will include a crossbow, fireplaces that players can use to prepare food and a prototype system which should allow loot to respawn within DayZ's expansive yet sparse world. [Image: Bohemia Interactive]
Arma 3 is out to Win next week with final campaign episode
Arma 3 concludes its The East Wind campaign on March 20, when the military shooter launches its third and final episode, 'Win.' The episode brings an end to the story of NATO soldier Ben Kerry and his Omega squad, and the near-future conflict that's seen the Mediterranean swallowed up in huge, all-out war. The episode also includes a separate mission called the Fixed-Wing Showcase. It's designed to get players acquainted with the two new aircraft being added in the update, namely the A-164 Wipeout and the To-199 Neophron. Bohemia Interactive's announcement follows the news Dean Hall is to step down from DayZ development by the end of the year. The Arma 2 mod-turned-standalone remains a priority for Bohemia, who recently doubled the number of people working on the project. [Image: Bohemia Interactive]
DayZ team doubles down with new developers
Bohemia Interactive is adding new people to the DayZ development team, "effectively doubling the whole project," the studio writes in an update on Tumblr. Bohemia is currently focused on fixing key bugs and starting work on new features, and last week it began developing a cooking system inspired by The Indie Stone's Project Zomboid. Players place food in a stove or fireplace, where it cooks or turns into edible things such as soup, and the items can become overcooked or cold. March signals a focus on survival mechanics, Bohemia says. DayZ creator and project leader, Dean Hall, plans to leave Bohemia Interactive by the end of the year to start his own studio in New Zealand. The team expansion and Hall's departure announcement are unrealated, Bohemia tells Polygon. "I have a specific use," Hall said in last week's announcement. "I'm really good at risk-taking and making other people take risks, I've always been good at that in my life. But eventually, that's the bad person to have. Eventually, you don't want the guy telling you to go over the top and get through. So at some point I'll be a disaster for the project, at least in a leadership role."
DayZ's dev team is doubling up
DayZ may be losing creator Dean Hall toward the end of 2014, but the popular zombie sandbox project will be gaining several additional developers. "We are inducting a large number of new people to the team, effectively doubling the whole project," wrote Hall on the DayZ dev blog. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Hall also reiterated his intention to move on, but stated that he will remain "in a leadership role until at least the end of the year."
Dean Hall is leaving behind DayZ and Bohemia Interactive
Games are a bit like children. You work with other people to craft them, to help them go from little more than a twinkle in your eye to something capable of surviving without you. Dean Hall created DayZ, but he's jumping ahead to the part where he metaphorically kicks it out of the house and tells it to get a job. Or he's kicking himself out of the house... the metaphor is a bit tortured, but the important point is that he's leaving DayZ behind. Why leave a game that's still early in testing and doing well? As Hall puts it, keeping him on the project could eventually lead to his being someone who tells others how things are done rather than adapting along with a changing game and culture. Instead, he's heading to New Zealand with plans of opening a different studio. The changeover is not happening immediately but should take place before the end of the year. [Thanks to Zipzopboobidybop for the tip!]
DayZ lead Dean Hall to step down by end of year
DayZ creator and project lead on the standalone edition, Dean Hall, will leave developer Bohemia Interactive by year's end. Hall tells Eurogamer that he plans to start his own studio in New Zealand. "I have a specific use. I'm really good at risk-taking and making other people take risks, I've always been good at that in my life," said Hall. "But eventually, that's the bad person to have. Eventually, you don't want the guy telling you to go over the top and get through. So at some point I'll be a disaster for the project, at least in a leadership role." Hall said he won't leave the DayZ community in a lurch, which now numbers over 1.5 million people, but he didn't intend to be with the project this long. Hall says, "That's why it's better to just address the elephant in the room. It's also fairer for Bohemia as well, rather than for me to just turn around one day and say 'see ya'." Bohemia had no comment on Hall's departure. Hall says DayZ can never be the multiplayer game with the spark he wants it to be and he'll continue to "chase that" in his new company. [Image: Bohemia Interactive]
Ubisoft sale, free dino hunts and Riley time headline Steam weekend
Steam is making a strong case for a mini-staycation this weekend. Festivities kick off today with the Ubisoft Publisher Sale, which lasts until February 24 and offers discounts of up to 75% across just about every Ubisoft game on Steam. Daily deals, additional discounts on select games, will further add to the temptation to spend. Don't want to spend any cash? Steam thought of that. Both Orion: Dino Horde, a multiplayer shooter that pits man against dinosaur, and Call of Duty: Ghosts, a game that pits Riley the dog against helicopters, are free to play this weekend. Should you wish to buy after you try, Orion is available for $1 and Ghosts is reduced to $30. Finally, Bohemia Interactive's military sandbox game Arma 3 is 40% off this weekend and available for $36. The game features a variety of single-player and multiplayer operations, and allows active personnel to edit certain gameplay scenarios and employ custom mods. [Image: Activision]
DayZ's next six months to bring vehicles, bases and more
Vehicles, camping, hunting, base building and an improved stamina system are in the works for Bohemia Interactive's survival game, DayZ. Creator Dean Hall recently took to Reddit for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, where he revealed the upcoming additions to the game. The new features are expected to be available in-game sometime within the next six months. "Vehicles will be done based on the architecture we are doing for items/weapons now (i.e. attachments)," Hall wrote. "So it's in progress really. We are replacing the physics system for items (throwing, etc...) and this new middleware will be used for vehicles also." For those less inclined to murder their fellow humans, Hall also teased more PvE content such as hunting, camping, and base-building. Bases, Hall noted, will take longer to achieve. Barricades are expected to be the first step toward their eventual full implementation. Hall wrote on Twitter that there will be "experimental" patches for the game regularly, and that updates will be moved to stable status once per month.
DayZ griefers force victims to sing
It may be the most genial stick-em-up of all time. A group of DayZ bandits are ambushing players in game for a truly sinister purpose: to make them sing. In the following video, you can see and hear players sneak up on unprepared foes, force them to their knees at gunpoint, and then offer them a choice. Either they sing their national anthem or they get shot. The bandits don't make their victims sing the entire thing and are recorded saying that they'll help them out with in-game supplies if they go along with it. You can preview the spectacle after the jump.
Arma 3 campaign mission 'Adapt' is yours to fire up, feel good about
'Adapt,' the second mission in Arma 3's official campaign dubbed 'The East Wind' has arrived. Launching on Tuesday, 'Adapt' puts players in the role of a soldier trapped on the island of Altis following a tumultuous event in the Mediterranean. "While the first part of the campaign introduced players to Arma 3's basic infantry combat and story, episode two opens up the military sandbox further, challenging players to adopt guerrilla tactics in the face of against a stronger, better-equipped enemy," an announcement on developer Bohemia Interactive's website notes. The mission is available for free to owners of the game, and will be added to the Arma 3 via a Steam update. Arma 3's first campaign mission – labeled 'Survive' – launched in October. The third and final mission in 'The East Wind' campaign, entitled 'Win,' is expected in March 2014. Arma 3 is a gorgeous, highly-moddable and unforgiving military shooter for PC. The series helped birth the popular DayZ mod and, perhaps most infamously, raised political tensions in Europe when two of its developers were detained by authorities in Greece on suspicion of espionage.
Humble Weekly Sale: Bohemia Interactive madness
The Humble Weekly Sale is ready to rumble with a lineup of Bohemia Interactive games: Arma 2, Take on Helicopters, UFO: Afterlight, Alpha Prime, Arma: Gold Edition and Arma Tactics. Those are all "pay what you want," but throw down $6 or more and add Carrier Command: Gaea Mission and ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead. DayZ, the Arma series mod, is free on Steam but requires Arma 2 and Operation Arrowhead, so basically you're getting DayZ in this deal, too. The standalone DayZ developed by Dean Hall and Bohemia is on its way, and the Early Access version sold more than 1 million copies in a month.
DayZ standalone sells over one million in four weeks
DayZ just got another healthy influx of folks who will eventually be shot for a can of beans. The player count for the Early Access standalone version has surpassed one million, Bohemia Interactive CEO and co-founder Marek Španěl announced. In DayZ, players fight to survive on a zombie-infested island. Perhaps more dangerous than the undead are other players, however, who may kidnap you and force you to fight for sport. The Early Access alpha is missing a lot of the planned features, which Bohemia Interactive hopes to trickle out over the course of the year. The beta version will be ready no sooner than the end of 2014, while Bohemia has yet to announce when it plans to launch the full game.
DayZ devs taking time, beta not planned until close of 2014
With over 875,000 copies of DayZ standalone sold in Early Access, the development team is going to take its sweet time getting to a final release version. In a recent update on the official DayZ development blog, the team said, "Please keep in mind that we do not expect to reach Beta status sooner than the end of 2014." "The level of support and confidence we have received from the DayZ community makes us even more dedicated to the game than we were in the past 16 months of DayZ standalone development," stated the post. "In the short term, we're going to focus on the most critical problems you're experiencing [at the moment] and at the same time we're going to work on the road to the DayZ Beta." Over the year, the team plans to continue working on "server performance, stability and security," along with hunting, gathering and "more complex interactions with the environment and crafting options." The launch strategy publisher Bohemia Interactive and DayZ creator Dean Hall are using for the game isn't that much of a surprise. Hall told us last year at Gamescom the best thing that could happen is if DayZ, which started its undead life as a runaway mod success, fell off the radar for a while. Hall said at the time, "I think if DayZ has a soft launch it's the best thing that can happen to it." We don't know if having nearly a million sales is a "soft launch," but the team clearly isn't in a rush.
DayZ won't be released in 2014
If all of the reminders from Bohemia Interactive weren't enough to convey the message already, DayZ is still very early in its testing process. A recent post summing up the game's third week in early access mentions that the team is not expecting to be further than beta testing by the end of 2014, stating once again that the only people who should purchase the game's early access are those who want to be a part of the development process. Aside from that, the development team is looking toward future features including customizable vehicles, structures, and in-depth mechanics for hunting and cooking animals in the wild. At 875,000 copies sold, it seems that the game is carving a niche for itself among zombie survival enthusiasts even if it is still very early in its development. Take a look at the full list of planned improvements to the game in the post.
DayZ destroys Hall's early sales expectations
DayZ's standalone client continues its surprisingly successful run, topping 800,000 sales in three short weeks. Creator Dean Hall says he and Bohemia Interactive "had very ambitious plans for 2014, already, however this amount of sales was completely unexpected." Hall goes on to explain that he would've considered 250,000 sales in the first quarter to be a success, "so to move nearly 800,000 in under a month is crazy." Finally, Hall recommends that gamers do their homework before shelling out $29.99 for the zombie survival sandbox's early access client. "I would recommend a very careful and critical review of whether purchasing now is such a good idea," he wrote on Reddit. "There are many problems which can ruin your gameplay experience. These are being actively fixed, but if you delayed your purchase by a month you would pay the same price but it would be a better experience."
DayZ alpha first-week sales exceed 400,000, dev outlines update plans
It's been an eventful couple of weeks for DayZ developer Bohemia Interactive, which has provided a state of the union update on the Early Access build. After launching on December 16, DayZ has sold over 400,000 copies on Steam and saw a peak concurrent user count top out at over 40,000 players. Bohemia Interactive issued three updates to the game so far and creator Dean "Rocket" Hall even outlined plans for feature roll-outs throughout 2014. Plans are to eventually implement better anti-hacking security, introduce cooking mechanics and even give players the ability to hunt animals. In an update issued in early December, Hall called the standalone Alpha version "a platform for future development" and stressed caution for those expecting a fully-realized product when buying the Early Access version. Hall has said he is considering Xbox One and PS4 ports, though nothing has been officially announced at this time.
DayZ sells 400,000 copies in its first week of early access
The holiday season makes zombies of us all, as we lurch hither and yon through a combination of exhaustion and overeating. So it's totally understandable that you may have forgotten to really check in on the activities of DayZ's early access during the holidays. But now we're all back up and running, and it turns out the game did quite well for itself, with 400,000 copies sold during its first week of early access on Steam. The official update stresses once again that the game is still very much in an early state, and the people who purchase it should be ready to take part in the ongoing development progress rather than expecting to get a finished game. While the team has understandably been taking a bit of a break over the holiday season, the game has its immediate future already mapped out. Despite the delays, the game seems very much alive in its current state.
DayZ hits Steam Early Access right in the head
The zombies are finally here! Hooray! DayZ is now available for PC on Steam Early Access for $30. As always, those who buy the early version will get the final build when it launches – and developer Bohemia Interactive is certain to note that the current release is truly an unfinished version of the game: "DayZ Early Access is your chance to experience DayZ as it evolves throughout its development process. Be aware that our Early Access offer is a representation of our core pillars, and the framework we have created around them. It is a work in progress and therefore contains a variety of bugs. We strongly advise you not to buy and play the game at this stage unless you clearly understand what Early Access means and are interested in participating in the ongoing development cycle." This echoes the sentiment from DayZ creator Dean Hall earlier this month, when he cautioned potential players that the Early Access version would be "barebones." Still, YouTubers are encouraged to show the world what DayZ's bones look like, Hall says on Twitter. DayZ hit Early Access with a launch trailer, but that was pulled from Steam for being too graphic. YouTube has a stronger stomach than Steam (but the video embedded above contains a fairly intense depiction of suicide).
Arma 3 modding contest involves pool of €500,000, potential contracts
Those enlisted in the war sandbox of Arma 3 have a shot at a real life victory - developer Bohemia Interactive has announced Make Arma Not War, a contest that will reward top-tier mod projects from a pool of €500,000. The revealing post also notes that mod projects which "show a lot of potential" could result in a contract offer from Bohemia, regardless of their standing in the contest's ranks. Participants will compete in four categories: Total Modification, Singleplayer Game Mode, Multiplayer Game Mode and Addon. The event's keystone reward, a prize of €200,000, will be rewarded to the winner of the Total Modification category. The other categories will grant scaled awards depending on a contestant's placement - first place winners will rake in €50,000, second placers will get €30,000 and those in third will get €20,000. Ten finalists will be selected for most categories (20 for Singeplayer), with the victors being selected according to four equally-weighted attributes: Technical Quality, Originality, Experience and Presentation. Applications won't be accepted until 2014, but Bohemia welcomes those interested to begin working on their project right now. Once you're done daydreaming about a future sack of money, you can also check in on the rules of entry. Submissions will be accepted up until October 28, with winners being announced on January 15, 2015.
DayZ creator stresses standalone Alpha is 'a platform' for the future
Dean "Rocket" Hall, creator of DayZ, cautioned that those who buy into the standalone game's upcoming Steam Early Access launch should not expect something on par with a fully realized, polished product. DayZ will essentially be "barebones" at the outset, he said in an update on the game's forums, pointing out that "some might be disappointed that this is not some feature-packed, graphically focused, masterpiece" of a game. "I really plead for anyone who is on the fence to take a skeptical approach - watch streams, read reviews, watch some let's play and form your opinion," Hall went on to say. "You could always come back to the game in three, six months time and buy it then." For Hall, Early Access presents a chance for folks who want to participate in guiding the game's growth. "For many," he said, "this is the opposite of what they want." Hall concluded that buying into Early Access is buying into "a platform for future development." DayZ will launch for PC on Steam Early Access, though Hall hasn't ruled out the possibility of Xbox One and PS4. No release date has been set for the PC Alpha, which has already been seen skulking around inside Steam's database.
