Remember when DayZ was the biggest thing in the world? The zombie survival action multiplayer game, which would inspire games like H1Z1, and then further into battle royale games like PUBG, was all the rage in the world just a few years ago. And while the excitement around it has considerably died down in the last few years, it’s still a big enough deal in that it has an active fan base that continues to play it daily.
DayZ is also coming to consoles—but, for the initial release, at least, it will come to Xbox One first, and PS4 later. Speaking to GamingBolt, Eugen Harton, Lead Producer of DayZ at Bohemia Interactive, explained that this has more to do with the PS4 lacking an Early Access style program, and that the intent is for the final “1.0” release to come to both, the PS4 and Xbox One, at the same time.
“Just to reassure everyone: for the final release, we want both Xbox One and PS4 players have the game available at the same time,” he said. “However, Xbox offers the Game Preview Program as an option for Early Access titles to get started on the platform. It gives us the option to get players into the game early, to have a trial period of sorts, and most importantly to gather feedback on our game before we go for the full launch.”
The absence of Early Access is something that a lot of developers, including the developers for ARK: Survival Evolved, have noted previously, and it is something that Sony could stand to address soon—after all, why concede any advantage to the competition?