DayZ coming to the PS4, this will help the game’s PC version says Dean Hall

Gamescon has been the scene of some interesting reveals and announcements. Surprisingly (and disappointingly, I might add), the sequel to the brilliant Tomb Raid, Rise of the Tomb Raider has been revealed to be an Xbox One exclusive. Not all announcements had a negative connotation though. Fans of survival games were pleasantly surprised to hear something many of us have been suspecting for awhile, more specifically that the popular zombie survival game DayZ will be making its way to the PS4.

Granted, people have been wondering whether or not Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall and his team at Bohemia will be porting DayZ to consoles any time soon. Many were surprised and annoyed by the announcement, arguing that the game isn’t even finished for the PC version, and thus, the developers should be focusing on wrapping that up first, before even considering porting the game to a different platform. I believe that platform exclusivity is generally a negative in the gaming industry, and I’m glad that more players are going to enjoy the brutal survival game that DayZ is. It’s also worth noting that the PS4 version is still far away in the distant future, and it’s likely to be developed by a different team, so there’s no real danger of a delayed or slowed-down development for the Steam Early Alpha game.

Dean Hall underlined that PC gamers should only be happy about the fact that DayZ will become a multi-platform game. “We didn’t want to just port DayZ, but to develop the game to each platform’s strengths. Commitment to the Playstation 4 version has given us cause to expand the parameters of the overall project, providing benefit to the existing PC early access.” he explained, adding that “When we were considering console versions, we were acutely aware of how important the PC version is to us”. Because this development means that DayZ is moving towards a 64-bit architecture, the game’s PC version will benefit from improved visuals, among other things. “We’re now committed to developing an entirely new cross-platform renderer to bring amazing new visuals to the game. Through an adaptable approach and development environment, this addition will allow not only Playstation 4 owners to get into DayZ, but it will improve all DayZ player experiences.” Hall concluded.

At the same time, the development of DayZ is going well, although probably not as well as many early access backers were hoping. Truth be told, most of us were expecting to see vehicles in the game by now, but the progress of DayZ cannot be denied. Recently, the game’s test servers have received persistent loot and loot respawn systems (meaning you can hide your backpack under a tree and it will still be there 3 days later, assuming nobody stole it). In addition, more and more weapons are making it into the game, more areas have been created (the game’s last stable patch introduced two new villages and a WWII monument), tents have been introduced, and multiple fixes have been deployed. Here are the last patch notes for reference:

NEW:

• Animations: Igniting fireplace
• Animations: Restrained sprint (run)
• Animations: Fishing (pull out, check, start)
• Animations: Searching for berries, digging
• Animations: Cow animation sets
• Crafting: You can craft leather sack
• Crafting: You can craft mosin wrap from burlap sack
• Crafting: You can add grass to burlap wrap
• Crafting: You can sharpen wooden sticks
• Crafting: You can combine sharpened sticks and feather to create a primitive arrow
• Crafting: Preparing chicken will now also give you some chicken feathers
• Crafting: You can saw mosin-nagant 9130 off
• Crafting: You can paint sawn-off mosin-nagant 9130
• Crafting: You can tear bandana mask into rags
• Crafting: You can attach and detach Smersh Backpack to Smersh Vest
• Gear: Crafted leather sack
• Gear: Smersh Vest
• Gear: Smersh Backpack
• Gear: Sharpened Stick
• Gear: Chicken Feathers
• Gear: Primitive Arrow
• Gear: Added lifetime and persistence parameters
• Gear: Bow can now use primitive arrows
• Gear: Tank helmet
• Loot: Randomized police cars spawns (works but cars are not always visible – see known issues)
• Loot: Some guns spawn with ammo now
• Weapons: Sawed-off variant of mosin-nagant 9130
• World: Sinistok village is added.
• World: Vavilovo village is added.
• World: New WW2 monument has been added to Severograd town.
• World: Oak tree was replaced by new model.

FIXED:

• Animations: Slow and fast move with raised Bow in crouch
• Animations: Silence gesture crouch and prone polished
• Actions: Tearing bandana into rags produce only one rag now
• Actions: Highly increased chance of finding an apple
• Actions: Slightly increased chance of finding a berry
• Character: Moved position of collision shapes for standing and crouching poses with two-handed weapon
• Cooking: Highly reduced chance of getting food poisoning from burnt meat
• Crafting: Tracksuit pants can be mended with sewing kit
• Graphics: Textures for epinephrine and fire extinguisher improved
• Engine: First iteration of wall clipping fix
• Gear: Gorka pants takes four slots
• Loot: Heli-crashsites fixed
• Loot: Loot tables changed
• Loot: Rotten fruit and vegetables removed from loot spawns
• Weapons: Crossbow dispersion tweaked
• Weapons: CR 527 magazine cannot be repainted
• Weapons: Range for all melee weapons and fists tweaked
• Weapons: All melee weapons are set to use cursor for hit now
• Weapons: CR 527 magazine description edited
• Weapons: MP5 30Rnd magazine takes up two vertical slots
• Weapons: Shotguns damage
• Weapons: Improvised bow dispersion tweaked