DayZ Producer Responds to Criticisms About Game's Quality

DayZ developer Bohemia Interactive has responded to criticisms about the game's current quality, telling fans that it's far from a finished product, and blemishes are to be expected. DayZ is available today as an in-development title from Steam through Early Access and Bohemia's own website. The studio has previously made it clear that bugs are to be expected in this non-final version of the game, a point that producer Brian Hicks reiterated in a forum post titled "Has Anyone Else Lost Faith In DayZ?"

"You are not playing DayZ, you are playing development builds. Early development build," Hicks wrote (via PC Gamer). "DayZ is 11 months into principal development, on what should be a three-year standard development cycle. I can't force you to be a fan of DayZ, but I can call this out: Defining or judging what DayZ is by a build so early in its development is much akin to judging a painting within the first few brush strokes. Hell, even Bob Ross's paintings didn't look great for the first few minutes (until you realized what it was he was making)."

"I can promise you none of your favorite AAA games played, or even resembled the final product that early in their cycle" -- Brian Hicks

Hicks also pointed out that even big-budget games take a while to realize their potential; the main difference is you don't get to play games like Grand Theft Auto V or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare early in their development cycles.

"I can promise you none of your favorite AAA games played, or even resembled the final product that early in their cycles," Hicks said. "Take a break, and come back in beta or even the full release. The Early Access period of development will have many peaks and low, low valleys. This is the nature of software development. Yes, it is stressful as heck--for all of us, but you get to be part of shaping the DayZ experience."

"For me, it's worth it--for some of you, it might not be," he added. "No one can fault you for that."

Also in the thread, Hicks clarified what he meant by DayZ having a three-year development cycle. Under a traditional development cycle, it would be three years of behind-closed-doors development, he said, noting that Early Access "changes a lot of that." Still, Bohemia is aiming to have the DayZ beta ready for the end of 2014. "We're trying to effectively do a three-year standard cycle in 2 to 2.5 years," he said. "It might be a lofty goal, but as long as I have something to say about it--you will all be kept updated as to what is going on."

In addition to PC, DayZ is coming to consoles. Right now, it's confirmed only for PlayStation 4, but it certainly sounds like the game won't be exclusive to that system for its console release. For more on DayZ, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch