H1Z1 will hit Early Access in January; won't be better than DayZ on day one

Sony Online Entertainment's entry in the first-person survival canon, H1Z1, will hit Early Access on January 15. It's a little later than expected, but according to John Smedley writing on Reddit, the delay is for the best. The game is still in an early development state, and in a direct reference to the game H1Z1 is referencing, Smedley admits that the game you'll play on January 15 will not be better than DayZ.

"No it won't," he wrote, preempting queries regarding whether H1Z1 will be more feature complete than DayZ. "We'll get asked that question a lot and I wanted to be up front about it. We're not as feature rich and they have a lot of really cool stuff we just don't have yet. That being said, we're also a different game. We're an MMO and our goals are to create a large scale world that gives you the incredible feeling of being a survivor in a zombie apocalypse."

The Early Access edition will have two price points: a base price of $19.99, and a more expensive one which is yet to be detailed. This latter edition will include more server access options in addition to other, yet to be announced perks. The game will launch with 64 square kilometres of game space, with more to be added over time.

"Why did it take longer than we originally thought? It's a fair question," Smedley wrote on the Early Access delay. "The simple answer is once we saw what we could have had earlier it wasn't good enough and we wanted to put something out that we would be proud of.

"What you'll be playing January 15th is a really fun game, but it's early. It's everything Early Access should be - a fun and compelling game that isn't finished. Our goal is to have you help us finish it and have it be a game we can build a large community in over time."

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.