When Bohemia Interactive let people know that the alpha version of DayZ is completely unfinished, a work-in-progress that needs many updates and bugfixes to even get to Beta stage, they weren't kidding.
"Please be aware that our Early Access offer is a representation of our core pillars, and the framework we have created around them. It's a work in progress and therefore contains a variety of bugs. We strongly advise you not to buy and play the game at this stage unless you clearly understand what Early Access means and are interested in participating in the ongoing development cycle. Please keep in mind that we do not expect to reach Beta status sooner than the end of 2014." states Bohemia head Marek Spanel, on their blog.
That last sentence could be quite a shock- a beta is a completely unfinished version of the game and we're almost a year away from THAT? But remember that this is a tiny team that's handling hundreds of thousands of gamers trying to play their game at once. It's a massive undertaking that's just getting harder the more people join up.
Earlier this week DayZ creator Dean Hall said that the game has sold nearly 800,000 copies in under a month but it's even better than that- according to the recent blog post on Bohemia it's sold over 875,000 in a mere three weeks. Crazy! At this rate they'll be pushing over a millon sold anytime now. They're taken aback by the success as well.
"We didn't want to compromise on the brutal and unforgiving nature of the early days of the DayZ mod so we're very surprised to see such interest as this clearly is not a game for everyone, especially considering that there are some radical changes under the hood in comparison to the mod," writes Spanel. "These changes may be more subtle than when comparing the relatively limited amount of content in the standalone game against the mod in its very mature state itself, but it should be much more valid in the long term for the overall game experience and of course we're aware how much more work is ahead. We're already seeing unbelievable player stories happening every day in the game even in its very limited Alpha and we're focused to make huge progress in 2014 on many areas of the game."
Spanel goes on to thank the community for their incredible support as well as lay out what the team is going to be focusing on. In the short term, we're going to focus on the most critical problems you're experiencing atm and at the same time we're going to work on the road to the DayZ Beta. We're going to re-evaluate the roadmap plans in the second half of January but here is a list of the existing top priorities on our to-do list to make DayZ really meet or hopefully exceed your expectations."
Here's the list of fixes that they're currently working on-
- Server performance, stability and security
- Animals & hunting
- Cooking & gathering resources
- Playable user customizable vehicles
- Player created constructions in the environment
- More complex interactions with the environment and crafting options
- Streamlined user actions and interface
- Control and animations expanded and improved for fluidity
- Upgraded graphics and physics engine (including ragdoll, etc.)
- Support of user mods and more flexibility for user hosted servers and game types
We know that people are clamoring for a PS4 or Xbox One version DayZ but with all of this work they're doing, don't expect it anytime soon unless they get another developer to help out. More on this exciting game as we hear it.