DayZ is still plugging right along, according to Bohemia Interactive's Brian Hicks, but it sure has been quiet on the post-apocalyptic zombie front these past several months. Fans expected to see the game on consoles at this point but, according to Hicks, there's a very good reason why that hasn't happened yet.
In short, Hicks doesn't want to bring DayZ to the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One until its ready and, put simply, it ain't ready yet. Anyone who is playing the game may think that it feels like most of the pieces are in place for the transition to occur but, according to a recent interview from Eurogamer, that's simply not the case. They had a chat with Hicks about all things DayZ and, perhaps rightfully so, it sounds like the console version of the game is on the back burner.
Hicks admits in the interview that, being the flagship platform, PC is receiving 99 percent of the development team's attention at this time. Even though DayZ has been in folks' hands for quite a while now on that platform, Hicks insists that it's just not ready for a full launch and, that being the case, he doesn't want to add a whole new list of issues for the team to deal with by bringing it to consoles in that state.
It's certainly possible to bring an early access game like DayZ to consoles in an incomplete form but, as Hicks puts it, DayZ is just too incomplete in its current state.
We can't really move DayZ over to these platforms, at least on a playable level for consumers, until the base engine, Enfusion, is complete. Or if not complete, feature-complete so to speak -- the core tech is there.
We can't say we blame Hicks or his team for being cautious, especially since early access games have been under fire since the beginning for a multitude of reasons. We aren't sure what people don't understand about "early access," but developers are finding that the constructive criticism they're hoping for is sometimes being replaced by complaints from folks who feel the game should already be launch-ready.
So, rather than open that whole can of worms up on a couple of new platforms like the PlayStation 4, it's probably best to nail things down first, right?
More than that, Hicks makes it clear that the Enfusion engine simply isn't complete yet. If your game's infrastructure isn't complete on its lead platform, there's no way in hell you should be trying to get it ship shape for additional platforms, too.
The real problem here might just be that the DayZ team started talking about console ports a bit too early. Maybe they thought they'd be further along at this point, but, either way, you maybe shouldn't tease new platforms until you're working on said platforms full tilt. According to Hicks, that's clearly not the case for DayZ yet.
