Zombie. Survival. These two words had become quite synonymous with Arma II mod DayZ, but today that once thriving horde of players has begun to dwindle since its Early Access launch. What’s gone wrong?
Slow development and lack of overall engaging content is being blamed for the player base shrinking, with today less than 9,000 concurrent players compared to around 30,000 just three months back.
Its highest number was 45, 398 players but it would seem those days are gone. DayZ isn’t even due to achieve Beta release until Q4 this year, and the lack of communication and substantive content from the team is being blamed for the lack of interest. It’s also pointed out that those interested in DayZ have ‘already come and gone’.
There’s another problem for the mod-turned-game - its rivals. The survival genre is no longer a one-man-show with DayZ as many wrestle for the crown including former Sony Online Entertainment outfit Daybreak Game Company, with the MMO H1Z1.
Rust is another thorn in DayZ’s side because of its more unique island setting with a weird mutant native population. Overall the DayZ project is now in jeopardy as an Early Access title unable to keep its player base interested is unlikely to win over many once it launches.
”The project management on DayZ is just awful. Nothing gets done on time, everything just doesn’t work on release, or it breaks more things. This game is nowhere close to beta. Unfortunately this is going to be the poster child for why you don’t listen to your community when it comes [to] releasing things too early!” said one Reddit user.
Today Bohemia Interactive continue to develop DayZ but the honeymoon period for the community of official support from the Arma II creator appears to be well and truly over.
