A DayZ 'reboot' with a new engine is coming soon, lead producer says

Update: Bohemia PR manager clarified the DayZ engine situation in an email, saying that the studio has been reworking the technology for the past four years. "It’s basically the reason why we are in Early Access for so long," he said. " Bohemia started a development of a new Enfusion Engine along with DayZ standalone—an engine that’s meant to empower our future games."

"The upcoming PC 0.63 Experimental update is going to introduce a sizeable chunk of these long-awaited tech changes that will have a massive influence over how DayZ plays and feels in general. So it’s definitely a huge milestone for the game itself, as big as having almost a completely new engine can be, but relaunch is perhaps not the correct word."

Culak added that the technological upgrade shouldn't impact the plan to launch the game this year. "This has been the plan all along: DayZ beta (when our 0.63 update reaches 'stable branch' on Steam) will introduce major tech changes that improve the gameplay, along with some new content and features," he said. "The road from beta to 1.0 will be mostly about polishing those, balancing everything, and doing additional smaller content drops."

Original story:

Bohemia Interactive dropped some unexpected news about DayZ at a recent ID@Xbox event, telling PCGamesN that the game is going to relaunch on a new engine in just a couple of weeks.

"We're releasing DayZ on a new engine in a couple of weeks on PC, and it's gonna be coming to Game Preview on Xbox this year," lead producer Eugen Harton said. "That's basically our aim. I would almost say it's a reboot of DayZ on PC."

DayZ has been in Early Access on Steam since 2013, and has actually been around for much longer than that, yet it was only late last year that Bohemia committed to a full launch this year. Harton wouldn't say whether the shift to a new engine would mark the Early Access exit, although I have to think it would be kind of a strange approach to take: Transitioning to a new tech platform is the sort of thing I'd expect to cause headaches, not clear them up.

There's no sign of the impending engine change on Steam, but I've reached out to Bohemia for more information and will update if I receive a reply.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.