NEWS
DayZ full release probably won't be until 2015
In an interview with Eurogamer, DayZ developer Dean Hall stated that the game's standalone beta won't be released until the end of 2014. The game's full release probably won't be until spring or summer 2015.
Hall described the game's current state as "alpha as fuck,” and added: "The beta date would either be prior to the end of the year, so November or something, or it would be pushed to January or February with more QA."
He also explained, “It will be a real beta; it will be no new content, just bug fixing. There may be content drops but they won’t be part of the beta – there will be no new functionality or something like that. I would be surprised if we go down that route because it will get it unstable. I would imagine it would take as long as it needs from then, which could be six months.”
Hall thinks that the finished game will be "fundamentally different" from its current version. "As some of these new features come on – even some of the things we introduce now – it suddenly changes the whole way the game’s played. We finally got it so that ruined objects don’t really work any more; that suddenly changed the way players were behaving. If you shoot someone and destroy their gear, it doesn’t work any more. Even little things like that can have profound effects. Then you add things like barricading, vehicles, companions, much more advance disease and medical, suturing, all that kind of stuff. We just added heart attacks the other day; it starts to really change the whole nature of the game."
Hall intends to leave Bohemia Studios in 2015 and start his own development team in New Zealand. DayZ will continue to be developed under Bohemia. "However," Hall added, "even once I've left the leadership role, I'm required to be involved in DayZ's future anyway."
Even in its alpha stage, DayZ has recieved a great deal of attention. Let's hope the final game is worth the wait.