DayZ Developer Blog 8th March

[Charb 298]

It does beg the question, why does the development of a $20-30million product feel so half assed. I'm convinced it's not Rocket's fault, but somebody's doing very well out of all this and I'm not sure they respect the fans

steam gets like 30% of the sale, and I think a vast majority of people paid on average about $18. To suggest that BIS is returning 100% of the money they received is a bit silly. No business works this way.

As it has been stated before DAYZ was simply going to be a solo version of the mod for DEC release. Not an entire redo of the game. PLUS, don't discount the fact that one of the most important people from the team WAS IN JAIL FOR 130 DAYS !!! Maybe not having Ivan to work on Chernarus+ was a contributing factor to it becoming its own game versus just a bugless copy of the mod.

All these pushbacks sadden me, they do... What can you do? nothing. They don't want to put out a bad product, can't fault them for that. This isn't Diablo III. it hasn't even been a year yet.

[DayZChainGang 19]

steam gets like 30% of the sale, and I think a vast majority of people paid on average about $18. To suggest that BIS is returning 100% of the money they received is a bit silly. No business works this way.

As it has been stated before DAYZ was simply going to be a solo version of the mod for DEC release. Not an entire redo of the game. PLUS, don't discount the fact that one of the most important people from the team WAS IN JAIL FOR 130 DAYS !!! Maybe not having Ivan to work on Chernarus+ was a contributing factor to it becoming its own game versus just a bugless copy of the mod.

All these pushbacks sadden me, they do... What can you do? nothing. They don't want to put out a bad product, can't fault them for that. This isn't Diablo III. it hasn't even been a year yet.

I totally agree that their attitude to putting out a good game is admirable, but what concerns me is the failure to communicate a clear strategy and produce regular updates. We only get sporadic updates of limited purpose because along with too much of everything else they are left to Rocket to do. After this long, we still have no clear dates for when we might expect it, what it will be when it comes etc. You can tell that people are starting to get frustrated with the 'surprise reveal' marketing approach, because it turns out its not an approach it's just lack of resources for a proper dedicated activity to keep fans up to date and engaged

Ok I have no idea what BI costs are but they made an awful lot of profit on a game they'd probably already substantially written off. We know that if done properly and released in decent time they'll do very nicely out of at least a million, but potentially 2-3million units of standalone. My hunch is they could afford to invest more resources into a proper plan and better comms if they thought it was important. As a simple example, if they had dedicated website with properly regular updates they could feed correct information, share successes and failures and respond to press speculation.

My fear is that DayZ has propelled them from cottage to big time and they haven't really adapted so what's next - they launch, sell too much too quick and get overwhelmed, or you have to wait for weeks for a key?

Edited March 23, 2013 by DayZChainGang

[Nihilum 209]

Updates are not your right. You're lucky they've even been fairly regular. I'm sensing a lot of 12-18 year kids with absolutely no patience or understanding of game development blowing things out of proportion.

Go buy from EA and Activision if you want something put out half-assed on ridiculous deadlines - I'll take an engaging game with potential years of enjoyment over a copy and paste job to appease impatient little kids.

[laex 0]

I totally agree that their attitude to putting out a good game is admirable, but what concerns me is the failure to communicate a clear strategy and produce regular updates. We only get sporadic updates of limited purpose because along with too much of everything else they are left to Rocket to do. After this long, we still have no clear dates for when we might expect it, what it will be when it comes etc. You can tell that people are starting to get frustrated with the 'surprise reveal' marketing approach, because it turns out its not an approach it's just lack of resources for a proper dedicated activity to keep fans up to date and engaged.

I don't get it why people are always crying about non-regular updates. Maybe it's because I'm not 24/7 on these forums waiting for something new to see. Try to come back every 2-3 weeks like me. You'll see that this makes it a lot easier. Their attitude isn't just admirable. It's absolut fantastic. I wasted ~40€ on a game called SimCity and I regret it so much that I wasn't patient enough to wait a few weeks before the first reviews showed up. And by the way: You got no right for updates every weeks. They will show us something new when there IS something new.

[Private Evans 1303]

it easily sold more than a million copies of the game

DayZ has been a financial success for its publisher (BI) without selling one single copy of the SA. I guess they could even stop the entire project and still make some nice profit out of it. It is not only the million sold copies of Arma 2, DayZ also indirectly supports Arma 3 because it has brought so many new people to the Arma universe/community including all its amazing mods and maps like for example Wasteland or Invasion44 etc

Not forget to mention some extra sold copies of other BI game like ToH...

Now let's assume Rocket will sell only 300.000 copies of the SA on top of that (because of the delayed release), it would still be a financial success for BI.

Now since there is obviously no reason to worry about the economic side of SA development what is left to worry about ...competition...vision and critical reviews...

Honestly in this very special genre (not talking about CoD gameplay) I see only one competitor on the horizon http://www.survarium.com/en/news/survarium-march-calendar-out which will come out at the end of 2013 or most likely in 2014 .

I don't think Rocket should dump his visons and risk bad critical reviews by rushing out a game without having other reasons to do so.

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

Hmmm If SA sells for £15, Which considering all the new work done, It will be a bit more.

300,000 X £15 = £4,500,000.

Now I wonder how it works out if a million copies are sold?

1,000,000 X £15 = £15,000,000.

Now I wonder how many people who purchased the Arma 2 and Mod works out to?

1,676,457 X £15 = 25,146,855. (Current players x Price is estimated, but you get the picture if @ full price?!?!?!)

Now with that projected income, Explain to me why communication is Poor?

Cost's have been covered and If I was in charge of BIS, I would give rocket all the time in the world, It is going to sell big time (I only estimated the price too)

[Death_Dealer 3155]

Me want the stand alooooone! Just release it and make patches for it, Minecraft Style.

:facepalm: .. Please .. Make it stop.

[slivniku@gmail.com 93]

Maybe, just maybe, BIS is just being practical atm;

they've released the arma3, and a lot of us are playing it, so if they released SA it could hurt arma3sales; at the same time that gives em time to polish and improve the SA as well...

[RedNome 443]

So what time is the PAX Dayz panel GMT time please?

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

If its 3:30 in Boston, I think that's about 8:30 PM GMT. (off the top of my head)

[RedNome 443]

Thanks Chab.

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

Sorry, it's going to be 7:30, not 8:30.

Is there a live-stream I should be aware of, or are we just waiting to see if it shows up on Youtube?

EDIT:

I must've thought too hard about that timezone thing. I need to go for a lie down.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Chabowski

[Private Evans 1303]

Cost's have been covered and If I was in charge of BIS, I would give rocket all the time in the world, It is going to sell big time (I only estimated the price too)

that's what I am saying...there is not even one good reason to rush the game out.

Now with that projected income, Explain to me why communication is Poor?

Yap communication is really bad and this is why I would like to see an official BI DayZ SA forum opened. Communication should be more centralized and official, not Rocket answering questions on Twitter or unknown youtube channels ....

[RedNome 443]

Sorry, it's going to be 7:30, not 8:30.

Is there a live-stream I should be aware of, or are we just waiting to see if it shows up on Youtube?

Thanks again.

Doesn't look like there is going to be a stream if you look at Twitch's schedule, looks like we'll be relying on some kind soul to record and tube it for us.

[SmashT 10907]

Yap communication is really bad and this is why I would like to see an official BI DayZ SA forum opened. Communication should be more centralized and official, not Rocket answering questions on Twitter or unknown youtube channels ....

This is the official forum for the standalone and there will be changes made to it in time to reflect that. I see little point in opening another separate forum for it though and I agree that communication should be more centralized and official but if that's not happening here why would it be any different using another forum, you're just going to end up with two forums with the same problem.

Edited March 23, 2013 by smasht_AU

[sav112g 114]

I bet near Christmas for release hence why I feel it’s a missed Window for this game. The console lads will jump ship with PS4 ad the new Xbox due out before or around the end of the year. ARMAIII has its vague 2013 release date set and it takes the whole engine and game experience to a new level .They sort out the FPS rate currenty and get even remotely like 60-70 maxed out its going to be some game.

Somebody already added Zombie soldiers to ARMA III, so how long before a Zombie mod it done for it. Wasteland for ARMA III was out within a day.

The promised release before Christmas 2012 was understandably dropped in favour of a proper well designed game. The Alpha was promised week after week and came to nothing.

I wish they would just be honest and say listen its late 2013 probably December. If anything the whole thing is shown up for its total lack of organisation with one day saying we will have a weekly update, well maybe every two weeks, then again maybe if we just have something to say. We have a saying in Scotland “Your a Rocket” and it fits the bill. Someone that’s all over the place, a clown, unorganised, slightly barmy.

We all want the best game but we just want to not be led up the garden path. Think the Guy is very Honest so I really think he's just out his depth running a project like this.

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

In terms of communication, the way I see it, there's not any reason we have to be kept in the loop. Any chat directly from the devs is done as a favour to us.

I'd still prefer to be informed of things more often and more directly (through the forum), but in the strictest sense Rocket isn't failing in his responsibilites by not keeping in touch. It's not really his job to share all the info that he does.

He does a better job of maintaining contact with the community than I would in the same position.

Even the small number of unappreciative folks would be enough to put me off, never mind all the ragers and haters. :P

The candid, informal banter that we do get is far preferable to a "once in a blue moon" press-release, that's for sure.

[sav112g 114]

Its not that we don’t appreciate direct contact with him in here, just stop coming out with promises or sweeping statements that he cont fulfil. He had a lot of streamer ready to try the new Alpha, they got excited ready to share within there streams how the game was progressing. There was its coming soon, within the next few weeks, next week etc then blank nothing!

I have no doubts he is as honest with us as he can but he need to learn to no be the excited kid with the new toy and bring news that he can back up and at the right time. Considering my distrust to large gaming companies like EA that more or less cross the line of lies through suggestive media at least with Rocket when he does come out you know he’s not deliberately trying to mislead us.

[DazTroyer 227]

I don't think it's a case of meaning to mislead us, more the transition from mod to full blown game. They seem to want to pack more and more into it and the minecraft model seems to have gone, for now. I think when they say "alpha" it's really just a way of covering themselves when stuff don't work, let's face it it will have a lot of bugs. While I want it as much as the next guy, we've got no choice but to be patient. Hopefully, the long wait will be worth it, only time will tell.

[ssimmons 72]

I bet near Christmas for release hence why I feel it’s a missed Window for this game. The console lads will jump ship with PS4 ad the new Xbox due out before or around the end of the year. ARMAIII has its vague 2013 release date set and it takes the whole engine and game experience to a new level .They sort out the FPS rate currenty and get even remotely like 60-70 maxed out its going to be some game.

Somebody already added Zombie soldiers to ARMA III, so how long before a Zombie mod it done for it. Wasteland for ARMA III was out within a day.

The promised release before Christmas 2012 was understandably dropped in favour of a proper well designed game. The Alpha was promised week after week and came to nothing.

I wish they would just be honest and say listen its late 2013 probably December. If anything the whole thing is shown up for its total lack of organisation with one day saying we will have a weekly update, well maybe every two weeks, then again maybe if we just have something to say. We have a saying in Scotland “Your a Rocket” and it fits the bill. Someone that’s all over the place, a clown, unorganised, slightly barmy.

We all want the best game but we just want to not be led up the garden path. Think the Guy is very Honest so I really think he's just out his depth running a project like this.

You can add zombies to ARMA 3, but that wont make it DayZ. There's a very specific formula that makes DayZ special and fun -- it would be difficult for anyone to reproduce without a lot of effort. Besides, the SA is going to be so much more than the mod so it's worth the wait.

[CroFireMan 9]

Where is the new devblog?!?!

[SmashT 10907]

Where is the new devblog?!?!

Rocket and Matt are at PAX East, they have a discussion panel in a few hours so I seriously doubt we would be getting a dev blog this week..

Edited March 23, 2013 by smasht_AU

[dgeesio 1034]

if the april/easter deadline is to be missed then i cant see anything being released until oct/nov.

this is great sales period also launch of new consoles ps4/xbox 720 . if this launches with the new consoles i will be very dissapointed.

[Zeppa 562]

I dont know, where should I put this?

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/22/dean-hall-dayz-standalone-alpha-wont-launch-until-at-least-jun/

[SmashT 10907]

I dont know, where should I put this?

http://www.joystiq.c...l-at-least-jun/

There is a thread in the information section discussing it.

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/129419-dayzgame-alpha-wont-launch-until-at-least-june/