Dear Survivors!
Today is a very exciting day for all of us here at the DayZ team. Coming closer to five years of Early Access Alpha development, we are now moving the PC version of DayZ into BETA. What does that mean for the future of DayZ and how long do we intend to run the BETA? Watch our new Dev Log video to find out more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ZfK6a8T00
To recap, The DayZ BETA shifts our focus from introducing new features and content to bug fixing, stabilization and balancing. The goal is to create a stable and -most importantly- fun experience for our 1.0 release, scheduled for the end of 2018.
Worry not, this is not the end of DayZ development: we have more features and content planned after we stabilize the game, and they will come to you as part of free platform updates in the future.
The former 0.62 version running on our old technology has been moved to a legacy branch on Steam, and the default (Stable) branch on Steam now runs the new, 0.63 BETA update.
So what are some of the BETA highlights?
- Major engine changes
- Improvements to game and network performance
- Introduction of base building
- Massively improved implementation of vehicles
- More elaborate AI for infected and animals
- Major map rework to make Chernarus more beautiful and detailed
- Ability to run your own servers
- Modding Support
While mentioned as the last bullet point, the modding toolset is equally important to our effort of polishing the game, as it opens a whole new world of opportunities to experience DayZ in different ways. Read more about our modding toolset on our official forums.
Pricing plans, and post 1.0 plans
Despite our original announcements suggesting otherwise, the pricing will not change for DayZ with the BETA release, and we'd like to reach the final price for DayZ when we release the game out of Early Access. That means for now, DayZ is still available for 27,99 EUR / 34,99 USD.
For the rest of the year, we will be working on our post 1.0 development plans and evaluating where we take DayZ next in terms of additional features and content. As soon as we have a solid roadmap in place, we'll let you know through all the official channels. Until then - see you all in Chernarus, and please do report every issue and bug you find to our Feedback Tracker!