In what seemed like an increasingly inevitable move, popular zombie survival mod DayZ is becoming its own game, creator Dean Hall announced today on the game's blog.

Moreover, ArmA developer Bohemia Interactive will actually be partnering with Hall to create the game. Hall will server as the project lead on this more ambitious take on DayZ.

“This is the fairy-tale outcome for a mod that many would have said impossible four months ago,” said Hall.

Development on the mod will continue, as well. Hall said the big questions about how this splintering will impact each project will be answered in the coming weeks.

The official website for the new game is www.dayzgame.com.

In what seemed like an increasingly inevitable move, popular zombie survival mod DayZ is becoming its own game, creator Dean Hall announced today on the game's blog.

Moreover, ArmA developer Bohemia Interactive will actually be partnering with Hall to create the game. Hall will server as the project lead on this more ambitious take on DayZ.

“This is the fairy-tale outcome for a mod that many would have said impossible four months ago,” said Hall.

Development on the mod will continue, as well. Hall said the big questions about how this splintering will impact each project will be answered in the coming weeks.

The official website for the new game is www.dayzgame.com.

Nice.

I don't think anyone said it was impossible four months ago- In fact I'm pretty sure everyone I know, and everyone who posts here said it was inevitable.

I'm pretty sure Rocket or whoever he is said something about this weeks ago and it's suppose to be out before the end of the year.

@Rohok said:

I don't think anyone said it was impossible four months ago- In fact I'm pretty sure everyone I know, and everyone who posts here said it was inevitable.

This.

This is the type of zombie game everyone's always wanted, but for some reason no one made until now.

I'm super pumped for this. Day Z is the only Zombie video game I've really ever wanted, going as far back as Resident Evil. Not that L4D and the Walking Dead aren't fantastic of course.

I hope they can do something with steam at least. Such as a "Bought Arma 2 even if you did only buy it for Day z. you get 50% off the standalone version!"

Cities XL does that. So I hope they do such a deal.

Hopefully it could come to Ps3/Xbox360 or their next iterations. I'll never have a PC good enough to play that.

Patrick Klepek said:

Hall will server as the project lead on this more ambitious take on DayZ.

Will server?

@Akyho said:

I hope they can do something with steam at least. Such as a "Bought Arma 2 even if you did only buy it for Day z. you get 50% off the standalone version!"

Cities XL does that. So I hope they do such a deal.

ArmA 2 is a great game by itself. It would be great to get 50% off the standalone version because I, too, own ArmA 2 (two copies in fact- STEAM and retail), but I think owning ArmA 2 even at full price is an awesome deal by itself... Ultra realistic, in depth, complex military shooter that allows you to do whatever you want in an open, sandbox world? C'mon now, these are the games dreams are made of. The last of a dying breed.

whoa that was quick. guess I finished creating the wiki page JUST in time to have it linked in the story for once^^

I'll gladly throw money at them again for the standalone version!

“This is the fairy-tale outcome for a mod that many would have said impossible four months ago,”

Inconceivable, surely. Either way, no.

Iron Front - Liberation 1944 already paved the way. And using the Arma engine was all but guaranteed. The people who say they love DayZ, then bitch about the Arma engine, clearly haven't played Arma. Dayz is at least 95% Arma content, take it to another engine, and it's no longer Dayz. It's the open, moddable nature of the Arma engine that's the real winner here. BIS could have used the mod to drive sales of Arma 3, but I guess this publishing/licencing deal worked out as the more practical option. Not that WarZ is any real competition in the long run.

What about WarZ then?

@Giantstalker said:

Patrick Klepek said:

Hall will server as the project lead on this more ambitious take on DayZ.

Will server?

You know, delivering food and drinks on a tray and stuff.

Hopefully they fix some of the jank (the hit detection... looks waaaaayyyy off) and make this a fun game to play. I've been watching DayZ vids and it seems fun to watch, not so much to play.

@Rohok said:

I don't think anyone said it was impossible four months ago- In fact I'm pretty sure everyone I know, and everyone who posts here said it was inevitable.

Wasn't it just released to the public about four months ago? I thought it was, and assumed he meant that's what people said before it was released.

Either way, I was really happy when I saw this posted on twitter. :D DayZ is the only game I'm semi addicted to atm. lol

I've wanted to check out the game for a while but it looks really janky. Hopefully this will be a more polished product.

Just make it so i can play with friends more easily, some may say this ruins what the game is about but whatever make it optional per server.

Well, good that it is becoming it's own game now after my friends forced me to buy Arma2 to play dayz. Atleast I got Arma2 with it, if I only got that boring and tedious thing by itself I would be really pissed off.

Sweet. Don't wanna buy ARMA2 just for this... looks like I won't have to :)

Fantastic news. Let's hope it improves in all the right places and doesn't lose its deathly charm.

That was inevitable, I mean, did you see the number of copies of Arma 2 sold JUST for this mod ? And it really makes me happy that people that did a mod they really enjoyed for a game they like a lot are now going to make a game out of it with the developer of said game :'D

Also, a mod so popular it gets its own game ? Makes me think of another popular game... ;')

Hell yeah! Now I'm happy I held off on buying Arma

Congrats to everyone involved.

Also nice to see Bohemia do something that isn't Arma. Hell, maybe they'll figure out how to make an awesome UI with this game and get that over to Arma 3.

They better get to work soon. There's already a clone in the works called Z Wars or something.

It isn't so janky, and it's pretty much the best thing I've played in years. This is the game I'm most excited for out of anything now, goddamn I love DayZ.

@wmaustin55: That's like saying you were glad you didn't buy Metal Gear Solid because Metal Gear Solid 2 was announced. This is a long way from becoming a reality. At least a year or more and it will probably be a different game. "Waiting" for it makes about as much sense as waiting for a sequel and skipping the original.

Aw I was hoping they would move away from Arma but I guess that makes sense. I love the concept but DayZ just looked so goddamn janky and unplayable. Maybe that will change but if it doesn't I'm not crying over it.

Good for the guy who took an obscure pain the ass shooter and made it interesting to a wider audience.

I'd be willing to take a look at game as a standalone. Also, I hope they make PVP and non-PVP servers. Getting picked off by griefers isn't something I want to experience while trying to learn the game.

just started playing this yesterday, and I couldn't be happier to hear this. Good luck to them :)

@alibson said:

What about WarZ then?

i think they might be fucked.

DayZ now becoming something I care even LESS about.

@BaconGames said:

Aw I was hoping they would move away from Arma but I guess that makes sense. I love the concept but DayZ just looked so goddamn janky and unplayable. Maybe that will change but if it doesn't I'm not crying over it.

Good for the guy who took an obscure pain the ass shooter and made it interesting to a wider audience.

That's because it's effectively 11 years old.

I really dislike DayZ's inane popularity, and I have to feel a little bit miffed for the actual proper ArmA fans. But I absolutely do like the concept, just make it less Operation Flashpoint-y.

On one side this really makes me think about how CS came to be and how that grew into such a large success, but on the other I can't help to shake this feeling that it's all just hype. The mod has had it's round around a ton of major streamers and "let's players", but it's already seemed to die down quite a bit. Which leads me to believe it's gotten a a big bump from word of mouth, but by the time the game actually comes out people have gotten their fill.

server?

@Allison: Good to know...

I was hoping thus would happen. I had to restrain myself from buying Arma II (which I have zero interest in playing) just to play the mod.

"FUCK."

- Everyone Who Bought Arma II To Play DayZ

There's what, five open world zombie survival games in development right now? The Human Element, Dead State, The Dead Linger, this thing, and the inevitable Dead Island sequel? This genre is going to be as beat into the ground as modern military by 2015.

I'm guessing that this move to a standalone version means that it'll make the jump to the updated engine for ARMA 3.

ARMA II on it's own is amazing, but DayZ feels really janky and unresponsive since it's using the engine in a way that it was not intended for. I can't wait to see DayZ at it's full potential.

Also, that'll put a stop to people buying a full blown military simulator just to play a mod, and then complaining non-stop when they can't be bothered to learn how the ARMA controls, and systems work.

Awesome news. But I have to say that a mod becoming a stand alone game is not unheard of ^^ There was a little mod called counter-strike that seemed to do okay.

Love DayZ though and will definitely buy the standalone.

@Brenderous said:

"FUCK."

- Everyone Who Bought Arma II To Play DayZ

This (damn you Steam sale)

@Brodehouse: True, but DayZ has had one million unique players since the mod was created and it went from 500,000 to 1,000,000 in a few months. It has an established audience that will happily buy into the stand alone alpha and I feel, like Minecraft, that audience is going to continue to grow.

This is great news. Arma isn't really designed for this kind of multiplayer, as it has many huge exploits built into the multiplayer system.

For anyone who is curious about what DayZ is, I recommend watching this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRpPIyJDSEQ&list=PL68854CD9F0A0C4A7&index=1&feature=plpp_video

@Brenderous said:

"FUCK."

- Everyone Who Bought Arma II To Play DayZ

And I would do it again. I've gotten my monies worth 10 fold since buying Arma 2 for DayZ. Plus a new appreciation for hyper realistic shooters like Arma. No regrets here and I'm not alone.

Will it not be a buggy, awkward piece of crap anymore?

Edit: I'm blaming the ARMA engine, not the mod team BTW.

So its DayZ vs WarZ now?

@YOUNGLINK said:

@Brenderous said:

"FUCK."

- Everyone Who Bought Arma II To Play DayZ

And I would do it again. I've gotten my monies worth 10 fold since buying Arma 2 for DayZ. Plus a new appreciation for hyper realistic shooters like Arma. No regrets here and I'm not alone.

This.