The sensation that largely kicked the survival genre into high gear has officially come out of Steam Early Access today with the launch of DayZ 1.0. The release comes almost exactly five years after the Bohemia Interactive title entered the early access program.
Originally created as a mod for ARMA II by Dean Hall, DayZ became a standalone game on December 16, 2013 thanks to its massive popularity, although the mod version is still maintained by the community. Dean Hall left Bohemia Interactive and the DayZ project later, but the studio has slowly carried on its development.
Although the game isn't spoken of very fondly anymore, DayZ eventually did spark what slowly became the battle royale craze we see now. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds creator Brendan Greene originally created his battle royale vision using the DayZ mod. He then moved on to head H1Z1's take on the genre before finally building his own game that went on to gather hundreds of millions of players.
Fresh off the early access program, DayZ 1.0 is now available on Steam for $34.99. The studio has also kicked off a free weekend to celebrate, letting everyone try the game out for the next three days.
PC version's development will still continue behind the scenes, and there is an Xbox One version of DayZ currently in the Game Preview program as well. Barring any delays, Bohemia Interactive plans to fully launch that and a PlayStation 4 version in early 2019.
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