Proving that zombies's popularity is as eternal as their own undead lives, the standalone release for long-awaited zombie game DayZ launched yesterday to staggering success, no pun intended. Despite a year-long delay for this release anticipation was clearly high as can be, with gamers wasting no time to flock to Steam and pick up the game via Steam Early Access.
Mark Spanel, CEO of DayZ developer Bohemia, took to his blog to reveal that 172,5000 copies had been sold in the first 24 hours in release. It seems the game's success has stunned the developers as well- DayZ creator Dean Hall seemed shocked to see the number of unique players increasing by 200 a second, with no signs of slowing down.
As for the game itself, DayZ presents a vast open world that combines survival horror with an MMO. The game is apparently really brutal to play since anything can kill you at any time. There are no saves, no extra lives, and if you die you lose everything you gained up to that point. They make a point of mentioning that there's no tutorials or help given to players- it's up to figure out how to survive on their own. Up to 40 players can play in each server which means that you won't just be competing against zombies in the post-apocalyptic landscape, you'll be competing with the other survivors as well.
The game started out as a mod for the tactical shooter game ARMA 2 and placed the player into a Soviet state that's been destroyed from an unknown virus. It won many awards and was considered by some to be among the best zombie games ever made, and clearly that hype has translated to sales for the standalone version.
Of course, this release is only an Alpha version and the hard work is just beginning for the team. With this many people downloading the release there's that many more chances to find bugs, something Cliff "Don't call me Cliffy" Bleszinski (of Gears of War fame) found already and shared on Twitter. As is the case with other Steam Early Access releases you can treat it as an unfinished game that will change over time in response to the community's response. Kudos to Bohemia and their success!
