DayZ Closed Beta Test Next Week, Could Arrive For Xbox 720, PS4

Dean “Rocket” Hall has updated the Tumblr for the standalone version of DayZ and answers a few questions regarding the progress and multiplatform possibilities for the game. The most promising news is that if the team has a stable enough build by next week, they'll begin large scale testing between 50 and 150 people, which means open beta might come sooner than we think.

Examiner spotted the update on the official DayZ Tumblr page. In regards to a question about the next-gen porting of DayZ for the Xbox 720 and/or PS4 and if it would be possible, Hall replied with the following...

Personally, yes I believe it would be technically possible. Some of the consoles will be easier than others. There are some issues with requirements for publishers which are really annoying, and I have been frustrated in the past with some of the rules required that force some weird design changes in games (I don’t like tutorials!).

Tutorials? Who knew?!

I hate tutorials, too. After Assassin's Creed II I'm almost keen to stop playing a game for a while if the beginning is filled with too many tutorials. I understand bigwigs like casuals needing time to adapt to the game, but I didn't pay money to play a tutorial and for those who don't like it, there definitely needs to be option to off that crap.

What's more is that hardware manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft have some pretty strict certification phases and other parity regulation guidelines that make it almost impossible for a lot of developers to get innovative and original games onto the home consoles. While at one point an argument could be made about quality over quantity, I'm hard pressed to say that such an argument still has legs to stand on in comparison to some of the indie titles that have been released recently and some that are coming to the market (especially the Kickstarted games).

Anyway, DayZ is continuing to shape up nicely as the team is expanding on a number of features, including dynamic loot spawns, increased zombie counts independent of player locations and a better, streamlined inventory system.

If DayZ arrives for consoles or not isn't much of a concern. For the Xbox 360 there's State of Decay and for the PlayStation 3...uhhh...well, Sony will think of something. I'm sure there will be plenty of emergent, survival-horror, zombie-apocalypse titles on the next-gen consoles, too. There's probably no need to worry if DayZ never sees the light of day on Sony or MS's next-gen platforms; so long as the game is good on PC I think most fans will be happy.

You can read up on the lengthy update for DayZ over on the Tumblr page.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.