The battle royale genre is pretty cutthroat right now, and not everyone is guaranteed to see success (especially if it’s through efforts like Radical Heights or The Culling 2). Nevertheless, Hi-Rez’s Realm Royale is coming to consoles, and Daybreak’s H1Z1, which had a less than enthusiastic launch on PC, has received new life on PS4.

The developer recently announced that H1Z1 is now out of open beta and officially available for the console as a free to play title. Along with various bundles and Battle Passes, a new vehicle has also been added with the recent launch update.

H1Z1 producer Terrence Yee issued a statement on the launch, noting that, “Everyone here at Daybreak Games is thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response to H1Z1’s debut on PS4. 10 million new players in our first month in open beta is an incredible milestone, and our entire development team has worked tirelessly to build on that early success. We’re beyond excited to officially launch H1Z1 on PS4—this is our fully realized vision for battle royale on console.”

Though a free Battle Pass option is available, there is a Premium Battle Pass available as well. The former costs $5.50 but if you also have PlayStation Plus, then you’ll receive level progression transfer across tiers. The Deluxe Bundle is also available and comes with the Viper Starter Bundle ($5) and Hardline Launch Bundle ($35) along with the Premium Battle Pass.

In the old times, before players were building forts or dining on hard earned Chicken Dinners, there was H1Z1. That title hasn’t disappeared so much as it has just kept on going outside of the spotlight, with H1Z1: Battle Royale set to leave open beta and launch properly on PS4 on August 7th.

Confirmed by Daybreak Game Company through PlayStation Blog, the official launch will bring with it several new weapons, a vehicle and some starter bundles to celebrate the proper release. The RPG and SOCOM Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle will become usable in the game, with the RPG acting as an anti-vehicle weapon and the SOCOM fitting into the middle of the pack between the Scout rifle and the now buffed to always headshot – even through a helmet – M40 Sniper. Finally, the ARV is a five man personnel carrier allowing your squad to roam the map in safety and style.

If you’re interested in jumping in, you can get a boost with the Viper Starter Bundle at $4.99 or the Hardline Bundle at $34.99, granting players early access to some weaponry and armour. I’m sure you’ll just completely drop Fortnite and switch over, won’t you? I mean, the beta attracted decent numbers. Let us know in the comments.

Days after Daybreak Games announced that the open beta for H1Z1 on PlayStation 4 crossed one million players, it’s now celebrating another milestone. On May 26th, the studio confirmed that its Battle Royale-style title had seen more than 4.5 million players on PS4.

To thank players, Daybreak has provided Blue Barbed Hellfire 4-6 in players’ inventories. Furthermore, Duos is now available for players with the most recent patch (along with different fixes).

H1Z1 recently left Steam Early Access, having started out as a zombie survival title before being split off into Just Survive and King of the Kill. The latter would be renamed to H1Z1 and launch as a Battle Royale title with the vehicle-heavy mode Auto Royale.

Suffice to say, there wasn’t much enthusiasm on Steam and H1Z1 went free to play shortly after. It did very little to help and the company suffered lay-offs in the meantime. However, it appears that the reception to the PS4 open beta has been strong. Can Daybreak continue with this momentum? We’ll find out in the coming months.

[PS4 Open Beta] As a THANK YOU to all 4.5 million+ of you who have joined us since Open Beta launch, we've dropped the Blue Barbed Hellfire 4-6 right into your inventory!

PLUS, Duos is now unlocked with a brand new patch – see the latest fixes here: https://t.co/ZC3AuC94uU pic.twitter.com/G3iLFmX1AZ

— H1Z1 (@H1Z1) May 26, 2018

Daybreak Game Company, known for developing and publishing H1Z1, has suffered from a number of layoffs recently. The company revealed in an email to PC Gamer that it was “realigning” its work force to “better position” the developer for the future. To that end, it had to layoff a number of its employees across numerous disciplines in the studio.

“Daybreak confirms we are realigning our workforce to better position our company for the future. Because of this, we have had to make an extremely difficult decision to part ways with some of our employees across various disciplines at the studio. We are doing everything we can to take care of each affected individual by providing them appropriate transition assistance.”

The company isn’t in trouble just yet. It will continue to develop “large-scale” online games while supporting its existing franchises. “Daybreak remains focused on publishing and developing large-scale online games and will continue to service our existing and long-standing games and franchises.”

One such individual who was laid off recently was chief publishing officer Laura Naviaux Sturr, who confirmed the news on Twitter on April 25th. You can check out her tweet below in which she teases “new beginning” with the appropriate hashtag.

Daybreak has been in a rather tough spot recently following the release of H1Z1. Originally exiting Steam Early Access for a price, the survival title then transitioned into a free to play format one week later. Daybreak also started the H1Z1 Pro League that premiered just last weekend.

Perhaps the game met with a lacklustre response and has been struggling to make ends meet? H1Z1 is still in development for PlayStation 4 and slated to release on May 22nd so we’ll see if things improve over at Daybreak.

Moving on! The next adventure awaits…I’ll drop some info soon. #newbeginnings #staygaming

— laura naviaux sturr (@navsturr) April 25, 2018

H1Z1 is – or was – quite the paradox for Daybreak Game Company. It started out as a single zombie survival title before splitting into two games, Just Survive and King of the Kill. After finally emerging from Early Access, the developer has now announced that H1Z1, along with its free vehicle-based Battle Royale mode “Auto Royale” will be free to play. The change is going into effect today at 10 AM PST.

It’s an interesting move to say the least but somewhat expected. Even PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds commanding the player base that it does isn’t enough to unseat free to play titles like Fortnite: Battle Royale. With H1Z1 spent so much time in Early Access, this is probably the best way to garner attention, encouraging more players to try it out and probably staying to invest some money long-term.

We’re not sure what this means for the players who already bought the game but there are probably a few special benefits set aside for them. What are your thoughts on H1Z1 going free to play? Let us know in the comments.

It’s been a tumultuous year for Daybreak Game Company, formerly Sony Online Entertainment of PlanetSide 2 and H1Z1 fame. After the company became independent from Sony, it was the victim of attacks by hacking group Lizard Squad. Following the two year sentence of Julius Kivimaki and harassment from the group, Smedley threatened to personally sue (which only led to more attacks on Daybreak titles).

Now it’s been announced that Smedley is stepping down as CEO of the company. According to VentureBeat, chief operating officer Russell Shanks will act as president and work with a committee to oversee the company’s working.

A Daybreak representative further stated that, “John Smedley will be taking some time off from the company for the near-term and transitioning to a different role to be determined. Upon finalization of his plans, further communication will be provided.”

Smedley himself has not commented on his role in the future or the exact reason for his departure. Could it be related to Lizard Squad or simply the need for a break? Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Anyone who uses Twitter no longer has to wonder what Matthew Higby thinks about Bungie’s policy when it comes to the Taken King DLC for Destiny. Who is Matthew Higby you ask? He’s a former developer for Planetside 2 and now that his game has officially launched, he couldn’t hold his tongue anymore when it came to his feelings about that $40 price tag and the promise of VIP treatment when it came to the Taken King.

Higby took to Twitter to say “A REAL MMOFPS experience on the PS4 and no bull—  $40 DLCs to worry about now or ever? Too good to be true? Check out #PS2onPS4 today!” He also wasn’t ashamed to continue down that path, further throwing a bit of shade at Destiny and Bungie. One user responded back to him asking if he could “quote him” on that. Higby replied that he has always preferred the free to play model over games that charge a great deal of money for DLC.

The developer pointed out that when you’re talking about a game that uses the F2P model, you aren’t forcing people to pay more money every six months in order to “stick with friends.” At some point, the developer seemed to realize that his tweet could look like a member of the Planetside 2 team was directly taking aim at Destiny and he pointed out that he no longer works on the game or for Daybreak. He added that he was now just some guy stating his opinion.

Planetside 2 went live for the PS4 earlier this week. It should probably be pointed out that the game almost immediately reported severe issues with its European servers so not everything is rosey in F2P land either just yet.

Continuing Sony’s network woes, it seems that Daybreak Game Company’s Planetside – which launched yesterday for PS4 worldwide – has had its servers offline for the past 12 hours or so in Europe.

A “PSN Store purchasing issue” struck both North American and European servers, taking the game offline but the former was fixed a few hours later. As of now however, the European servers are still down. Director of development Andy Sites simply re-stated on Twitter that the team is, “Still working to resolve the #ps2onps2 EU server issue and will post another update in a few hours. Again, we apologize for the downtime.”

Not exactly the smoothest start for the free to play shooter which was originally supposed to launch in November 2013 and seen numerous delays since then. However, given the numerous other games which see online issues at launch (Halo: The Master Chief Collection, The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited on consoles, etc.) it’s to be expected at this point.

Daybreak Game Company’s Planetside 2 is finally available to download for free on the PS4 through the PlayStation Store.

The free to play shooter has been in development for the current gen console for what seems like forever – it was originally slated to launch alongside the PS4 in November 2013 but saw significant delays. You’ll require up to 10.7 GB of hard disk space for installing the game and given the regular updates, some additional space will be required for those as well.

Players can also sign up for various membership plans to avail of different benefits, ranging from £11.99 for one month to £79.99 for 12 months.

Planetside 2 is still fairly active on the PC side. Players recently set a world record for most number of players in a first person shooter battle this past January when 1158 combatants took party. Will the PS4 version see as much enthusiasm? Stay tuned in the coming months to find out.

Remember EverQuest Next, Daybreak Game Company’s next iteration of their popular MMO which began on the PC back in March 1999? It seems the former Sony Online Entertainment may be slowly shifting towards bringing the full game to players, building upon its Landmark creation tool according to senior producer Terry “Fairan” Michaels.

Speaking in a recent Producer’s Letter, Michaels said that, “As the team has wrapped up the various pieces related to the wipe and the bugs associated with it, we have been shifting our focus and resources over to work on the highest priority tasks and systems that will be used in EverQuest Next.

“While we do this, we’re working in areas with high amounts of creative risk. This means that while we know what we want to do, we know it will take an unknown amount of iteration, tweaking and sometimes drastic direction changes to get these in game and working the way they need to. Because of this, we simply cannot commit to any dates, because until we get much closer, even our best estimates are educated (but still fairly wild) guesses.”

There will be updates to Landmark, just fewer and far between for this year, and while the focus is now on EverQuest Next, fans shouldn’t expect it to release this year. Stay tuned for more information and updates on the game in the coming months.