In a blog post updating fans on the state of the game and the developer’s plans for 2017 and beyond, Bohemia confirmed that it is planning to bring DayZ to consoles starting with the Xbox One. Responding to a fan on Twitter, the developer confirmed that the main reason for this is due to the fact that the Xbox One has a game preview feature that is similar to Steam’s Early Access program, while Sony doesn’t have a similar program for the developer to use.
The developer also revealed that the long-promised beta version for PC isn’t coming in the remaining weeks of 2017. Instead, the developer is working on getting update 0.63 ready for 2018, because once it goes live, the game will officially be out of Early Access on Steam.
While the news may be somewhat disappointing for longtime fans, the studio promises that it will be worth the wait as the beta adds a wide variety of changes and updates to the DayZ experience. From a content perspective, the beta version adds new zombies to the experience as well as an overhauled system for melee and ranged combat, reworked animations, updated maps, and more. Players will also be getting a new damage and hitbox system, as well as more network stability.
DayZ is available now in Early Access on Steam and launches for Xbox One in 2018.
