It's pretty remarkable at this point. While we reported last week that the standalone release of DayZ, the post-apocalyptic zombie game that that started out as a mod for ARMA 2, had sold 400,000 copies, that number is now up to 800,000 copies. That's in less than a month! Major releases don't sell that much, so for a game from such a small developer to explode so fast says a lot about it.
When asked if the cash flow of $12 million would help speed up development by a user on Reddit, the creator of the game, Dean Hall, stepped in to say that he was actually off with his figures- the game had earned almost twice that.
"We (bohemia and I) had very ambitious plans for 2014 already, however this amount of sales was completely unexpected. Honestly, 250k within a quarter was what I would have considered a success. So to move nearly 800,000 in under a month is crazy.
We'll be finalizing our roadmap in mid January, but it is safe to say that this kind of result will be having a very positive effect on that roadmap."
The developers have been great at communicating with gamers enjoying DayZ and you have to appreciate their candor in warning people away from buying the game if they don't want to experience bugs. It is a Steam Early Access release, after all, and while you will get all the updates towards it become a finalized game, it may not be for everyone. Dean Hall responded to another question on Reddit about having to re-buy the game for the final version with this-
"No, one payment gets the full game at the end. But I would recommend a very careful and critical review of whether purchasing now is such a good idea. There are many problems which can ruin your gameplay experience. These are being actively fixed - but if you delayed your purchase by a month you would pay the same price but it would be a better experience. Something to consider."
In the meantime gamers seem to be continuing to enjoy the game thoroughly, unfinished state (and server-wide genocides) or not. Sales are certainly being helped by videos such as the below one, which show the kind of human interactions you can have in the game. While it's entirely possible to kill people (and death is permanent when you do) there seems to be a new contingent of robbers emerging that simply force you to . Of course, not everyone's going to be as gentlemanly as the bandit below, so keep a weapon close to you and keep an eye out for everyone- not just zombies.