Standalone DayZ MMO Enters Testing Stage, Won't Appear Anytime Soon

Bohemia Interactive, the developer behind ArmA 2 and the upcoming standalone release of DayZ, has confirmed that the online zombie experience won't be released anytime soon, as the studio's ambitious plans have required a lot of effort and development time.

DayZ became an extremely popular mod for ArmA 2 and the developer of the realistic shooter, Bohemia, decided to create a standalone release and turn it into a persistent online experience, while adding many different improvements and new features.

While the game was set to go online at the end of 2012, that hasn't happened, so the Project Lead for DayZ, Dean Hall, has confirmed that, due to the developer’s ambitious plans, the studio was forced to push back the estimated release.

"Put simply, DayZ Standalone isn't here because we had the chance to go from making a game that was just the mod improved slightly, packaged simply, and sold - to actually redeveloping the engine and making the game the way we all dreamed it could be. This blew any initial plans we had dictated to pieces," he wrote on DayZ Tumblr.

As of right now, Bohemia is going to begin a closed testing phase for DayZ, in which a few hundred fans will participate and share feedback. Based on the reactions from fans, Bohemia will plan out a new release strategy and share it with the rest of the world.

"The plan from here is straightforward. We will be releasing a closed test imminently, during which approximately 500-1000 people will assist in ensuring our architecture is correctly functioning. This closed test will be focused purely on architecture, not the game design. Once we have confirmed fixes for issues arising from the closed test, we will then reschedule an internal date for our public release."

Hall confirmed that more details about DayZ will be shared when the time is right.