‘DayZ’ PS4 Announced, Could Compete Against ‘H1Z1’
DayZ creator Dean “Rocket” Hall took the stage at Sony’s 2014 Gamescom press conference to announce that a Playstation 4 version of the zombie-survival game is coming. The announcement was interesting since Sony Online Entertainment is also developing a similar title with H1Z1. However, Hall did say that the console development is helping with the PC version of the game.
A Playstation 4 or Xbox One version of DayZ has been anticipated ever since it was first announced that Bohemia Interactive was converting DayZ from an ArmA II mod to a full-blown stand-alone title. The stand-alone game was released to the PC in December 2013 in an early alpha state as part of Steam’s Early Access program after more than a year of development. It’s still undergoing significant development changes and is expected to enter beta by the end of this year.
It also doesn’t sound like it will be a console exclusive to the PS4, and could eventually come to the Xbox One.
@BubbaFenix @Totalbiscuit I agree. DayZ is not exclusive to any platform
— Dean Hall (@rocket2guns) August 12, 2014
The success of DayZ spawned several copycat games like Rust. SOE then threw their hat in the ring with H1Z1 built on the Planetside 2 engine, a game that is also coming to the PS4, though a console version of the zombie-survival game has only been teased. However, the fact that H1Z1 is built on a game engine that was designed specifically to handle massively multiplayer game types already gives it a leg up on DayZ, which has performed a massive overhaul of the ArmAII engine and architecture.
H1Z1 is still in development with Sony Online Entertainment, but is expected to hit Steam Early Access by the end of the year.
Hall says that development on the PS4 version of DayZ will benefit the PC version and explained why in a Reddit thread immediately after his stage appearance at Gamescom.
“We need a new renderer and other optimizations. This change in project scope gives us priority to ensure this happens,” Hall opened up with in the thread before explaining:
Console versions gave us the opportunity to do more things than we originally planned, such as DX11 and 64bit support to name only a few.
PC gamers will get all the benefits the console gamers get, for free.
It also guarantees that we must hit a particular performance target.
It’s a win win scenario
After continued questions by fans on whether Bohemia Interactive took money to go to the PS4, Hall expanded on his reasoning:
DX11 was never part of the scope, it requires a massive investment and replacement of the engine. Adding other platforms (no just consoles!! Ie Linux) allows scope to be increased. This means we can dev features for one platform it ALL can share.
Let me be very clear here too. No money changed hands. This is about extending the scope of the project so more people can play, and those already playing get the benefits of an extended scope
There’s currently no release window on when DayZ will be released to the PS4. The same can be said for H1Z1, though. The question from a gamer’s perspective is which will arrive first.
What do you think of DayZ on the Playstation 4? Will Hall and his team at Bohemia Interactive get it in playable state before H1Z1? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[Image via DayZ Tumblr]
