DayZ creator: ‘I could have made a killing going free-to-play’

DayZ creator Dean Hall considered releasing a free-to-play version of his hit open-world survival horror, telling VideoGamer.com that he “could have made [himself] an absolute killing going free-to-play”.

“I think it would work,” replied Hall, when asked by VideoGamer.com whether free-to-play could have been a viable business model for DayZ.

“We have thought about it. There have been a lot of approaches with a lot of money. I could have made myself an absolute killing going free-to-play.

“The problem is, with free-to-play you need a very robust design. You need to be very un-hackerish and have everything locked down and working very well, and DayZ’s not at that point and it’s not going to be at that point for at least six months. That’s critical, really. We have to address that. It’s very important.”

Instead, Hall believes that Notch’s Minecraft model is the best way to go for DayZ’s upcoming standalone release, which will see “fast iteration, [a] low-entry price-point, high community involvement, and small collaborative development”.

“I think [Notch] had a real winner there, and it’s a win for everyone really. He made a lot of money by having a good product. That’s awesome, you know?”

Hall isn’t convinced that publishers are currently approaching free-to-play with the best intentions for the customer, however.

“I think that people are making a lot of money on free-to-play and that’s great but I don’t think they’re necessarily making money in the way that’s best for the customer.”

DayZ launched as a mod for war simulator ArmA II earlier this year, and sees the player playing as a survivor in a zombie-infected fictional Russian state.

The mod saw a reprise in interest for ArmA II, shifting a further 300,000 copies of the game three years after its original launch. Over 1,000,000 unique users have signed up to play DayZ.

A standalone version of DayZ is due to release later this year.