14 DAY TRIAL // Dean Hall, the creator of the very popular DayZ concept, says that his team is planning to launch the beta version of the game either in November of this year or early in 2015, depending on how fast the implementation of new features moves in the coming months.
It seems that the alpha stage, which is currently running and open to all those who are willing to pay for the game, will continue to add new features and more content to the title, a process that will stop once the beta is out.
Dean Hall tells Eurogamer that, “It will be a real beta; it will be no new content, just bug fixing. There may be content drops but they won't be part of the beta - there will be no new functionality or something like that. I would be surprised if we go down that route because it will get it unstable.”
If the DayZ beta arrives in November of this year, then the title will have been in alpha for a full 11 months.
It seems that the bug fixing will take less, apparently about six full months, and after that, the Bohemia Interactive team might need a little more time to finalize the experience before the official launch takes place.
Dean Hall says that he does not want to speculate, but that DayZ might be feature complete in the spring of next year.
The developer believes that the entire experience might be very different from the one that more than 1.5 million gamers are currently enjoying.
He adds, “As some of these new features come on - even some of the things we introduce now - it suddenly changes the whole way the game's played. We finally got it so that ruined objects don't really work any more; that suddenly changed the way players were behaving. If you shoot someone and destroy their gear, it doesn't work any more.”
It’s unclear whether fans are interested in getting a new game experience from the final version of DayZ or if they would like to continue playing refined versions of the mechanics that are currently offered.
Dean Hall has announced that he is leaving the development of the survival title in the hands of Bohemia Interactive and that he is heading back to his native New Zeeland, where he plans to set up a new studio and work on a perfect multiplayer experience.