After NantG Mobile took over the development of the online shooter Z1: Battle Royale from Daybreak Games and reset the title, H1Z1 is now surprisingly moving back to Daybreak.
How has the development of (H1)Z1 been so far? The online game has a tumultuous history:
- In 2015, Daybreak Games released the online zombie survival game H1Z1 in Early Access.
- In 2016, the developers split the title into two separate games: Just Survive and King of the Kill. – King of the Kill became a hit as a battle royale shooter on Steam and Twitch.
- In 2017, King of the Kill simply became H1Z1. H1Z1: Just Survive became “Just Survive”.
- In 2018, Daybreak received more funds from a deal with the company NantWorks, but had to discontinue the development of Just Survive in the same year.
- H1Z1 was intended to become attractive for esports as Z1: Battle Royal. The newly founded studio NantG Mobile took care of the further development of the online shooter.
- In March 2019, Z1: Battle Royal launched and aimed to return to the successful times of H1Z1.
- Now it is said that NantG Mobile is giving up development, and the game is returning to Daybreak.
A Developer Studio Gives Up
Why is NantG giving up? In a statement, it says that the state of the game requires a very long development time, and there was confusion among players since both Daybreak and NantG were involved as developers:
- NantG for Z1: Battle Royale on PC
- Daybreak for H1Z1, which kept this name for the console version on PS4.
NantG now wants to focus on mobile games, allowing Daybreak to concentrate solely on the further development of the online shooter.
What will happen to the game now? Daybreak intends to keep the servers of Z1: Battle Royale online for the time being. Next, they aim for a smooth transition of the game’s development from NantG to Daybreak.
After that, Daybreak will continue to work on the shooter. The goal is to make a success out of Z1. It looks like there will be another renaming. The common name H1Z1: Battle Royale is expected to apply to all versions.
For the Fans, It’s Pure Circus
How are players reacting to the situation? For the fans, this is a farce. Many find it rather ridiculous what is happening with the game.
kri_s_2000 sums it up on Reddit: “What a circus.”
Since there are no indications of future content in the announcement, players fear that this could signal the end for H1Z1, respectively Z1.
Razzer80 comments: “LoL. This is the death blow!”
Now we have to wait and see what the future holds for the online shooter H1Z1. However, it does not seem promising.
