DayZ sells 1.7 million copies, opens another studio in Slovakia

Bohemia Interactive sold 1.7 million copies of DayZ’s standalone version and has opened a new studio in Bratislava, Slovakia, creator Dean Hall has announced.

Hall revealed the news live on stage at EGX Rezzed 2014, where he also said that the game’s original Arma 2 mod has now been downloaded more than 2 million times.

Bohemia Interactive Slovakia will employ the staff, facilities, and technologies of developer Cauldron, but Bohemia isn’t calling it an acquisition. “In 2013, Bohemia Interactive opened a new studio in Bratislava, Slovakia - as part of the Czech company's portfolio of next-generation game development studios," Bohemia said in a statement to Eurogamer. "The new studio is composed by former recruits from the successful Slovak studio Cauldron, and has acquired selected Cauldron facilities and technologies.”

Cauldron worked on several hunting games in the last few years, including Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2012. That makes sense because, last week, Hall said in a post to DayZ’s development blog that Bohemia added an entire new team based in Bratislava to work on adding animals to DayZ, as well as improve collisions and zombie pathfinding.

Last month, Hall announced that he will leave Bohemia this year to open a new studio in New Zealand. For more on DayZ, check out our Early Access review of the game.