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The War Z removed from Steam
Hammerpoint Interactive's The War Z has been removed from Steam amid allegations of false advertising from its community, which claims that the developer knowingly listed inaccurate information on The War Z's Steam profile.Originally, the game's profile touted multiple areas ranging in size from 100 to 400 kilometers and servers capable of handling up to 100 players, according to this screenshot obtained by Gamespy. The profile also stated that The War Z was a "Single Purchase, Downloadable Client with the ability to play the full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions," and failed to mention that this is a "Foundation Release," meaning that the game is still under development, with some areas even marked with alpha testing information.In actuality, the game only has one zone, and servers were initially capped at a maximum of 50 players, though that issue at least appears to have been corrected. Moreover, The War Z features a microtransactional-based in-game economy, somewhat contradicting its claim of being a "single purchase" game. The profile has since been rejiggered and no longer makes mention of the multiple zones, nor does it make any mention of in-game transactions. It does, however, still neglect information about the game's somewhat early developmental stage.
The War Z closed beta starts on Halloween, pre-orders get in early
The War Z, the upcoming zombie-themed PC MMO, will go into closed beta on October 31, publisher Arktos Entertainment has announced. The game is also now available for pre-order. Three packages are available, each granting access to the beta and offered at a discount until October 20*.The Survivor package is available for $19.49 and grants access to the beta when it begins on October 31. Meanwhile, the Pioneer package is $29.99, grants access to the beta on October 15, $15 of in-game currency, a special forum badge, one month of map server hosting and 3 guest keys. Finally, there's the Legend package for $49.99, featuring October 15 access, $30 of currency, a forum badge, 6 months of server hosting, 3 guest keys. Legend purchasers will also have their survivor names highlighted on leaderboards and in the game's chat.After October 20, the pre-order prices jump to $29.99 and $49.99, respectively. The game can be pre-ordered on The War Z website.*The War Z website states that the discounts only apply until October 17, but Arktos informs Joystiq that the correct date is indeed October 20. The website is being corrected.
The War Z makes it easy to tell your own story
The War Z will not generate any quests for you. Any quests you wish to participate in will come directly from the community. Maybe somebody will need a bodyguard while they look to scrounge up supplies in a deadly metropolitan center. Maybe someone will pay you to fight to the death in their gladiator pit, set up on a remote farm. Maybe somebody just wants to pay you for a sniper rifle scope.There are a lot of opportunities for players to come up with their own narrative in The War Z – and that's exactly what developer Hammerpoint Interactive hopes players will do.%Gallery-166296%
The War Z allows cash shop items to be lost forever
Imagine that you're playing the hot new zombie MMO, and you decide to splurge a few bucks on that shiny weapon you've been eying. You get your grubby mitts on it and go to town on a few living undead, only to find yourself over your head and quickly killed. When you wake up, your gun -- and the rest of your stuff -- is gone. Forever. And the devs are totally OK with that. This is about to become reality for players of the upcoming The War Z, as even cash shop-purchased items are not safe from being lost due to death. In a recent interview with Gaming Blend, Hammerpoint Marketing Director Alex Josef was unapologetic about that point: "You'll lose what you have in your backpack when you die in both in normal and hardcore modes. And yes, if you bought something using real money, you'll lose that item as well. This is a price you'll have to pay." According to Josef, this level of item loss was a deliberate decision by the team to cause player to treat the game more seriously. "We've discussed that a lot," he said, "and at the end decided that this will provide a pretty good incentive for players to either be extra cautious while playing or just not spend too much money in the game and instead try to procure all items by finding them in the game world."
The War Z gets a new website, 100,000 beta registrations in 24 hours
The War Z has a spiffy new website, but more importantly it also has more than 100,000 people banging on its closed beta doors. The newly announced zombie apocalypse MMO has generated a ton of interest in the gaming community over the last couple of weeks, primarily due to its survival simulation sandbox pedigree and its seeming similarity to white-hot mod darling DayZ. The War Z is currently in alpha, and the devs say that closed beta is "planned for the very near future." There's also a pre-order link on the new website, but as of press time it leads to a beta registration box. [Source: Hammerpoint Interactive press release]
