DayZ Isn't Dead On Console, But Don't Expect To Play It Soon

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Dom Peppiatt

Remember DayZ - the zombie survival game that originally started life as an Arma 3 mod? It was rumoured for a current-gen launch quite close to the beginning of this console generation, but nothing really came of it.

Well, at least we can confirm that the project definitely isn't dead. In an interview with Eurogamer, creative director Brian Hicks outright stated that the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game are still very much alive.

Hicks states, when quizzed about the state of the console version:

"No, it's not dead at all. It's not dead at all.

"The PC is our flagship platform for DayZ. That is where 99 per cent of our development resources are focused. And while there was a lot of push from Sony and Microsoft to get up on their stages and say 'yes, we're coming', our focus has been exclusively (I want to say exclusively because there's about a one per cent development resource trying to keep those platforms at a point at which, once we get to our beta and our bug fixing, we can start pushing forward on that) on the PC. We can't really move DayZ over to these platforms, at least on a playable level for consumers, until the base engine, Enfusion, is complete. Or if not complete, feature-complete so to speak - the core tech is there."

Speaking specifically about the status of the game when it comes to development staff and on-going production, Hicks continued:
"We do keep a small group of programmers on making sure that our PS4 and our Xbox One version are at least, tech wise, it's running on those platforms. But we're not going to be releasing any announcements on dates for those and I don't think we ever have."
Hicks also mentioned that due to the way the Xbox has been produced as a piece of hardware, Xbox One users are more likely to see the game first, thanks to shared resources between Xbox and PC platforms:

"Once we get to a point with the PC that we're comfortable and we can start dedicating a little resources into catching up those [console] platforms then we'll look at doing some announcements and talk about the Xbox Game Preview programme, which is what I would imagine is the first place we'll get to since Sony doesn't have something similar," explained Hicks.

So we haven't got a date just yet, but at least Hicks is confident that development isn't going to take that much longer - and if the game is released on PC soon, that means even less time before a console launch.

You can read much more about the game and it's development in the full interview on Eurogamer.

 

Comments
9
  • I have read that twice and still don't know what the answer was... I must investigate this game.
  • how hard is it to do a port. because thats all its gonna be.
  • well, as a person that have this on PC, it's broken, full of hackers and basically dead there aswell, so this is not surprising.
  • Them saying that their focus is exclusively on PC tells me that when this does happen it'll be a crappy half-arsed port (for a crappy half-arsed game), so no thank you. I'll just play the other better open world survival games.
  • i hear this game used to be fun like 2 years ago but its gone to shit now
  • Don't get excited for this guys, it's been in alpha for nearly 5 years. Stuff that was promised years ago still hasn't made it into the PC version, and we don't expect a full release before 2030
  • For those unaware, this game has been in early access(same thing as the preview program, but for steam on PC) for years now and it's still broken. Just simple things like basic movement animations and your interaction with the environment are fundamentally broken and have been since it started. Do not expect this game for a long time. It is a mess.
  • @4 Payday 2...
  • The Dayz standalone was dead even before Rocket left, which was almost 2 years ago now. Don't expect this any time soon. If you have a fairly decent pc, try the Dayz mod for Arma II, which is way better than the standalone.
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