Less than six months into its console release, open-world survival game DayZ will receive a physical edition for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 15. The venture will be backed by publisher Sold Out along with developer Bohemia Interactive.
For those who aren’t familiar with DayZ, the game started out as a mod for the open-world military simulation game ARMA 2. DayZ attempts to provide a realistic portrayal of what it feels like to live and survive in the conditions of a zombie outbreak, set in the fictional Chernarus. The game puts up to 60 survivors on a server to engage in a completely unscripted gameplay scenario with the sole goal of surviving. DayZ provides no superficial tips, waypoints, and built-in tutorials. It is up the survivors on how they interact during the game, whether they will be hostile to each other or if they find it much more beneficial to stick together so they can thrive.
In DayZ, zombies and other hostile players aren’t the only threats to your survival. The game’s open world terrain spanning 230 square kilometers can either offer refuge or danger such as a dynamic weather system or animal predators. Realism is further provided through injuries that require mending such as broken bones, diseases, and gunshot wounds. Resources such as food, clothing, armor, and weapons also wear down and require replacement or maintenance. Failing to keep up with these requirements to survive often means death. There are no checkpoints, there are no save files, meaning that if you die, whether from bleeding out or food poisoning, you have to start over from scratch.
The development of the DayZ mod to a standalone game has resulted in an all-new genre of games, some being dubbed DayZ killers and some introducing their own flair that has resulted in success such as King of the Kill, H1Z1, Rust, Ark, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
With DayZ now out of early access for almost a year, developer Bohemia Interactive is continuing with post-launch development and improvements across all platforms, further expanding on the game’s available content.
DayZ’s physical edition for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will release on October 15 for $39.99.
