DayZ Standalone No Longer Has a Release Date

In an interview with Joystiq DayZ creator Dean Hall announced that the standalone version of the successful Arma 2 mod does not have a release date anymore. The original release date was sometime 2012 but delays including jail time slowed that process.

“The awkward thing is the only thing we’re waiting on is the core network architecture. That’s the kind of thing only a few people can work on. It’s very specialized,” Hall said. “It’s like, you can’t throw more pilots at a plane. You put a thousand pilots in a plane it’s not going to fly any faster.”

After explaining the network architecture and it’s importance, Hall described the situation as a positive outlook. He would like to see the game’s expectations take a step back for the benefit of not releasing before the product is finished.

“I think the best thing that could happen is if DayZ fell off a little,” said Hall. “I think if DayZ has a soft launch it’s the best thing that can happen to it. Because then a few people will play it and say ‘this is cool, I want to play it with my friends.’ The best thing that could happen. If most of the community who maybe thought DayZ was cool a year ago and now they think it’s lame, I think that’s probably good for us. We don’t need to sell that many copies to break-even. We want to be a hardcore game and I think if we make a good game people will come back.”

He finished off by saying, “The worst thing we could do would be to release too early. Flat out, that’s the stupidest thing we could do. [The alpha launch] is going to be riddled with bugs, but the one thing I don’t want it to be riddled with is terrible multiplayer, it’s a multiplayer game.”

This looks like a step in the right direction for DayZ. I know there are a lot of disappointed gamers out there who have been waiting for the title to launch, but it’s good that a developer will wait till the perfect time to release a game when its completed in it’s entirety. No one wants to experience a game with a ton of glitches and components that are not in order. From the developer standpoint, letting your game fall off or be forgotten for the greater good later is a huge step and sacrifice. Not many developers or publishers would let that happen from a money standpoint. That is why I respect Dean Hall as a developer with the guts to wait till its right. This is reassuring to know that when DayZ Standalone does release, it will be an enjoyable multiplayer experience for all of us. A sacrifice that will be justified.