UPDATE: We have updated the following article to better reflect Bohemia Interactive's timeline for DayZ's Beta release, along with the following statement from the developer:

"while it’s true that DayZ is two updates away from its first BETA marked public build (coming with the 0.63 update, the current public version is 0.61), we’re still months away from that important milestone in development. The BETA update will see us implement all the important technology modules (and related features) that we’ve been working on during the Early Access ALPHA stage, ultimately allowing us to finally make DayZ the way we always envisioned it."

After nearly four years in Early Access, the well-known zombie survival game, DayZ, will soon be entering Beta stage. The info comes by way of a status report from Bohemia Interactive, the developer behind DayZ.

For those who may be out of the loop, DayZ was released as an Early Access title back in December 2013. From that moment until now, the game has technically been in Alpha, and has received numerous updates, changes, and adjustments over the course of its life.

The next update for the game, dubbed .62, will make some additional adjustments to the game, but it’s the .63 update that has gamers most interested. It’s this .63 update that will finally send the game into Beta.

DayZ Sniper

What’s interesting about DayZ is that it started as a mod for Arma 2 long before it was offered as a standalone title in 2013. As a mod, it quickly became one of the most well-known zombie titles on the market, with thousands of players active on its servers. The game’s popularity was so great that Bohemia Interactive, the developer behind Arma 2, hired the mod’s creator full time to start work on a standalone title.

Unfortunately for Bohemia, while it was simultaneously working on updating DayZ and keeping servers live, other developers crept in and started work on their own similar games. Titles like H1Z1, Rust, and Ark: Survival Evolved have all entered the arena and done well with their respective audiences. In fact, each one of those titles is currently outperforming DayZ on the Steam Charts by a healthy margin.

It’s been an interesting road for DayZ. After great initial success of the standalone version of the game, it was revealed that a console version would be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. That announcement was made in 2014, with many gamers expecting the game to see full release on PC in 2015, and a console release shortly after. However, neither of those has yet occurred.

DayZ entering Beta

As for why DayZ has been in Early Access so long, that’s something only Bohemia Interactive can comment on. However, considering the game sold more than 3 million copies, there will undoubtedly be many gamers interested in the game moving to Beta and what that means for the future of the title.

For those who are interested, the full status report is available on the DayZ website, and offers a detailed look at the various updates and changes coming to the zombie survival game.

DayZ is currently available as a Steam Early Access title on PC.

Source: DayZ