The “Dayz” standalone alpha release date has passed, and the download is available at a price of $29.99, but the developers are working on getting some serious bugs out of the system before a full sale.
“DayZ is not ready for a sale,” Dean Hall, the creator, said via Twitter in answer to several questions. “It’s very ‘alpha’ I would recommend considering not buying it yet.”
He added: “It would have been ‘better’ for dayz to go into early access later, maybe beta. but then... riots..”
He said in a game forum: “It’s a true-blue alpha. Massive areas of the engine were entirely reworked, involving a large team of people over the last 12 months. Much of what these achievements will enable won’t be seen for many months – so I really plead for anyone who is on the fence to take a skeptical approach – watch streams, read reviews, watch some let’s play and form your opinion. You could always come back to the game in three, six months time and buy it then.
“Buying early will be a recipe for disappointment,” he continued. “It’s a chance for those who want to be part of that whole process.”
The game itself on Steam gives the following warning: “WARNING: THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS ALPHA. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME AND ARE PREPARED TO HANDLE WITH SERIOUS ISSUES AND POSSIBLE INTERRUPTIONS OF GAME FUNCTIONING.”
(Bohemia Interactive)
Maruk Spanel, CEO and co-founder of Bohemia Interactive, said that 172,500 copies were sold in the first 24 hours after the game was released.
“Bugs discovered: Many. Work ahead: hard,” he said via Tumblr.
Spanel added via Twitter on December 19: “Day 3 of #DayZ Alpha: 250,000 survivors have arrived to Chernarus and Alpha version 0.30 is incoming with more beans (and some bugs fixed).”
People don’t seem bothered by the bugs, though.
“Played a bunch of (early) alpha and saw the game at it’s buggiest and still had an absolute blast,” said “ACurlyCube” on the Steam Store. “It’s the mod but cranked up to 11. Worth every penny in my opinion.”
A list of the bugs that have been fixed and new add-ons were posted on the DayZ forums.
