A brand new zombie-themed free-to-play MMO was announced last week, titled The War Z. It’s unveiling by developer Hammerpoint Interactive and publisher Arktos Entertainment Group could not have come sooner as the buzz and popularity for another similar online zombie experience in DayZ is hitting a fever pitch.
Where The War Z has been in development for a year and will release for a one-time purchase fee of $29.99 (with a discount for those who pre-order) later this year, the fan-made DayZ mod for ARMA 2 is already out and playable in its alpha build, but its development is stalled. DayZ creator Dean “Rocket” Hall has a goal of completing his mod and converting it to a standalone game and if he can get the resources he needs, that game could be ready for release by the end of the year as well.
Earlier this month, in interviews with Beefjack and Eurogamer, Hall made it clear that DayZ will absolutely become its own game and that it was just a matter of time. He claims that Bohemia Interactive – the developers of the ARMA franchise have been very supportive, but that they’ve oddly not scooped up the opportunity to help make a brand new game from the mod – a mod which has exploded onto the PC gaming scene, growing by several hundred thousand players in the past few weeks alone (currently sitting over 840,000) players.
The popularity of the mod has boosted sales on the 2009 ARMA 2 and continues to earn buzz thanks to livestreams, popular YouTube celebs playing the game, and now video game media buzz. In chatting with VG247, Hall spoke about his plans for DayZ, explaining that ideally, DayZ would be a low-priced standalone game, following the successful model used by Mojang with Minecraft. He also says the game could be ready for standalone launch within the “next few months” if Bohemia or another publisher/developer jumps on the opportunity to helm the project. The most interesting part of their interview is the ideas for features Hall has for making DayZ unique:
“In order for people to not feel ripped off we need to have a load of new content; so, things like base-building, tidying and cleaning up animations and add ragdoll physics as the like.”
Adding base-building could allow for an entirely new type of gameplay, with potential to expand the mod beyond just zombies and supply-collecting. Bohemia is currently hard at work on ARMA 3 - should they also add DayZ as a potential new shooter franchise? If they can jump on this and get a beta build with new features ready for this fall, it’ll have the advantage on The War Z with a lower price point and an already-built-in playerbase.
What features would you like added to your idea zombie survival shooter?
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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Source: VG247
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So after I spent 30$ to get Arma2 just to play Day Z I will have to pay again to play it. . . . Lets hope there is a deal for those who had to jump through hoops to even play DayZ. I hit every bug/corrupted file just to get Arma2 working then almost the same stuff happen when I installed DayZ. With so many servers you can play on being outdated so you can’t play. I think They need to micro manage the game or add a filter “Bad version servers” for the game. So many problems and if the creator wants it stand alone by the end of the year he will have so little time. But besides all the hoop jumping I do hope he can get Day Z up to its full potential. Day Z has the ability to be a great zombie game but it really, really, really needs work done to improve that.
You paid for ARMA 2 and got ARMA 2
DayZ’s creators don’t earn anything from you paying Bohemia, so of course players should pay them for a game.
Exactly what Rob said, you didn’t pay for DayZ, DayZ was free, and a MOD not a actual game, if you bought ARMA 2 for the soul purpose of a mod, it’s your loss. They owe you nothing, DayZ was a test for players who already owned ARMA 2, everyone else who payed for something else, their fault.
This really needs to happen. I can’t even mention ArmA 2 without DayZ being brought up these days. I feel it’s ruining the community niche the game has created. It is bringing BI major profits, so that’s a plus.
I hope he knows that most people will play the latest Arma 2 Day z because they don’t want to buy a game they played for free already.
The new features they are adding will most likely only be on the standalone game. Unless they want to be left playing an outdated version of the mod with none of the cool features coming, they’ll buy it.
I hope they bring Day Z out for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as its own game, with DLC possibly? Arma 2 is such a great game already but I think it should stay on pc because otherwise people who hadn’t herd of the beta may think its just some Call of duty or Battlefield or any of the other 1st person shooter games, and in my opinion won’t last against them.
However if they do pull it out for any console, I hope they give different controles because all the 1st person shooter games have the same controles.
Day Z would have to be the best Zombie game I have ever experienced and my wish is that it comes out on other consoles and becomes the best it can be, with updated grafics, better gameplay experience and possible game of the year, I think if it does come out on consoles also that it would become the greatest Zombie game ever made and would give the creators somthing to work with for a possible Day Z 2?!!
Thanks for reading my post guys, please don’t be to harsh in the string.
Vanilla J.
Rocket has expressed on several ocasions that there will never be a console port (from the forums). Something about consoles not being able to handle the size of the game world
Love this mod so much…. There is nothing like it anywhere. I’d like to see even larger maps, or perhaps additional maps. Maybe a “spray can” that you could pick up to leave messages on walls (directions, warnings about specific player bandits, death threats etc). The base idea sounds pretty awesome, being able to build/defend/lose your own underground fortress. Perhaps being able to fix up a tank or even a boat (thinking dawn of the dead ending). As long as Dean “Rocket” Hall doesn’t dumb it down, simplify it or water it down for the masses (or executives) and keeps to the original idea, I’ll cheerfully hand over more dosh for a stand alone game (seriously people, stop whining about having to buy Arma 2).
so war z comes out this year? when cuz im def gonna buy it! and im def gonna buy day z when that is standalne as well!
Just watch all the Guides at the DayZ GuideZ channel, pwn DayZ, then you will feel you have “completed” it before War Z comes out,
http://youtube.com/user/dayzguidez