Dev Explains why DayZ is More Likely on PS4

Look out; Chernarus is coming to consoles.

The creator of crowd-favourite Arma II mod DayZ would be more likely to bring the standalone version to PS4 than to Xbox One. 

Dean Hall has been working on a standalone MMO PC version of this popular mod for several months. He has been approached by both Sony and Microsoft to develop standalone versions for their next-gen consoles. In an interview with Eurogamer, Hall revealed why he is seriously considering developing the standalone for Playstation 4 over Xbox One.

“I like what I saw on the PS4,” he said. “I like what I saw on the Xbox in a lot of cases as well. I’m not s***ting on them. I’m kind of hopeful that Microsoft has just [forgotten] to talk about its indie support. Maybe I’m being a bit naive.”

However, when it comes down to cold, hard truth, Hall is anything but naive.

“Sony lets you self-publish and they don’t make you pay for updates. Microsoft requires you to have a publisher. They have no digital distribution strategy and they require you to pay $10,000, or whatever it is, for updates.”

As for whether or not the game will be easily ported, he is fairly confident. “With this new generation of architecture it’s not a problem for us. It’s totally achievable,” he said. 

“The only barriers are the ones console manufacturers put up in the way of indie devs. I’d love to see this on Xbox Live. I’d love to see it on PS4.”

He is less certain about porting to Wii U. This is hardly surprising. A hard-core survival open-world shooter with the RPG elements of DayZ might be difficult to incorporate into the Wii.

Hall added that once the alpha version of the PC DayZ standalone is up and running, he plans to turn his attention to consoles. “That’s a good time for us to run it up on a [PS4] dev kit and see what happens.”

He has yet to sign on with either console, however, because for now, his main priority is completing the PC  DayZ Standalone version first. Porting the game to other platforms takes a backseat for now.

Hall gave no news on a release date for the standalone mod at this point, but fans can take to heart that it’s already in a stage where testers are giving feedback.