DayZ promised for a 2018 Xbox Game Preview release

DayZ is a gritty, open world survival horror multiplayer game, which found popularity on PC some years ago. The goal is for players to survive on a post-apocalyptic map for as long as they can. Many gamers consider DayZ a rather hardcore experience because there are no tips, waypoints, tutorials or lives. If you make a mistake and get killed, you lose everything and have to start from the beginning with nothing but your two hands. Just like other titles in the genre, scavenging resources is the focus here. Other players might be your friends or enemies because resources are limited. Even those you've known for a while might turn on you if you possess an object they desire.

The premise of DayZ is simple. The planet is hit by a new and unknown infection that wipes out most of the world's population. You are one of the few survivors and now have to search the environment for items to help you survive. Aside from fighting other survivors, you have to fight zombies infected with the disease. The game is unpredictable, but even years later has a lot of technical issues which need ironing out.

DayZ was incredibly popular a few years ago, but since then has lost a lot of steam due to the prolonged development cycle. It's been roughly five years and many gamers have moved on. DayZ is one of the many reasons why the online survival genre is so popular to begin with. However, in the past couple of years, hundreds of survival titles have launched on PC and consoles. This has impacted DayZ is a great way because many gamers don't consider it as relevant anymore. There are just better experiences out there, with many more on the horizon.

This hasn't stopped the development team from focusing on its plans to eventually bring it to consoles though. A few days ago, the game's Twitter account confirmed that the game was coming to Xbox One in 2018. The game won't be a complete experience though, as it will launch in the Xbox Game Preview program. This is a little surprising because there aren't that many games out there which are this unfinished even after five years.

DayZ has had a rough time ever since the creator, Dean Hall, abandoned the project and started a new studio. The game isn't even that popular on Steam anymore because you hardly see it on the top charts. Experiences like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) dominate the field now. It's unclear if the game, if it does release in 2018 on Xbox One, will garner the same reception PUBG received.

Hopefully DayZ will be a somewhat polished title when it launches on Xbox One this year. However, talk of a console version has been floating around since 2014 so the 2018 timeline may be another broken promise from the developer. The studio can't afford any more delays because every month more and more games release which push DayZ further into obscurity.

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