The zombie survival game “Just Survive”, previously known as H1Z1 , is being discontinued. On October 24, it is over with the zombies. There will never be a release.
End of Just Survive announced: The early access game “Just Survive” will never leave early access. As the Daybreak team announces, they have decided to discontinue the game.
When is it over? Just Survive ends on Wednesday, October 24, at 8:00 PM our time.
Why is the game ending? It simply doesn’t have enough players. The team states that they had big plans, but are no longer capable of implementing them.
The Rise and Fall of H1Z1: Just Survive
In 2014, everyone was excited: H1Z1 was hastily developed in 2014 by Sony Online Entertainment under the leadership of John Smedley.
It was originally a side project to pass the time while the team waited to start working on the actual project.
“H1Z1” was probably based on ARMA and quickly found a loyal fan base that continuously demanded to release it into early access as soon as possible.
What was H1Z1? “Just Survive” was at that time a mix of Minecraft, ARMA and “The Walking Dead.” Players were supposed to fight against hordes of zombies, scavenge items, build bases, and fight for survival.
In 2015, the early access began: At the beginning of 2015, the game was released in early access on Steam, still unfinished. It generated a wave of hype but lasted only a few weeks.
The game was at that point too unfinished and buggy to convince players in the long term.
The developers repeatedly promised in the coming years that “Just Survive” was a rough diamond and played an important role in the studio’s plans. It had enormous potential that would be realized. Ports for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were also planned.
But nothing came of it.
Overtaken by Battle Royale: As early as 2015, the focus of the H1Z1 team shifted to “Battle Royale”.
Smedley had already recognized the signs of the times three years before PUBG and Fortnite. At Christmas 2014, Smedley hired modder Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene to develop a battle royale mode for H1Z1.
With this “Battle Royale concept”, H1Z1 aimed to conquer Twitch. This part was still enormously successful in 2016 and the first half of 2017 and was separated from “Just Survive” as a standalone game “H1Z1: King of the Kill”.
But many things went wrong:
- SOE was sold by Sony – under the new owners, there were layoffs and budget cuts
- Smedley left the studio, thus H1Z1 lost one of its biggest advocates and the studio lost a visionary
- Brendan Greene was also gone quickly – with “PUBG” he implemented what Smedley had planned for H1Z1
- Despite all promises, “Just Survive” never significantly evolved after the hype of 2015
- And H1Z1 also suffers from the fact that the base game was put together so hastily back then
Just Survive is a kind of “Worst Case” for Fortnite Save the World
What’s behind this: “Just Survive” has been a sad story since 2015. Repeated promises, repeated disappointments. Since the early access hype back then, there hasn’t really been any positive news about the game – and that hype was three and a half years ago.
The fans of the original game feel left behind and disappointed by Daybreak for years. They feel they have never received their promised “zombie survival” game. Instead, they got a “battle royale” shooter that they never wanted.
Sounds very much like Fortnite: The crazy thing is the many parallels between “Just Survive” and “Fortnite: Save the World.” Fans of the original “zombie and base building” Fortnite also feel that the developer is neglecting them for the new, hot battle royale part of Fortnite.
For more about H1Z1, check out our extensive special:
Update 16.10: There seems to be a reprieve of the “death penalty” for H1Z1: Just Survive.
