When Daybreak announced its new investment and development partnership with NantWorks and Jace Hall set up shop inside the company, H1Z1 fans expected big things, and not just for the promised new mobile game. As it turns out, big things are exactly what they’re getting, especially on the PC side of the veteran battle royale game, both in terms of personnel and in terms of updates.
As Babagra.pl has covered in-depth, Daybreak’s stream did verify that it’s NantGMobile that is working on the PC H1Z1 – now dubbed Z1 Battle Royale – complete with Adam “Arclegger” Clegg as lead designer, a returning Anthony Castoro, and additional Daybreak vets.
Among the highlights of today’s effort are a first pass on PS3-style weaponry, season 1 rewards, dynamic matches, quicker start times, nameplate display options, better jumping, more daytime games, camera tweaks, new event challenges, anti-cheat tweaks, and hosted game options.
It’s what’s on the horizon that’s got everyone buzzing: The new team is plotting a big overhaul of the game’s skin system, lockboxes, cash shop, and loyalty rewards. In a nutshell, they want to make every skin in the game tradeable – a significant undertaking.
https://twitter.com/JaceHall/status/1041773120653160448
Worth pointing out is that Daybreak/NantWorks has split off the PC side into yet another Twitter account, so if you’re looking for Daybreak’s feed, try @Z1BattleRoyale, which has been a flurry of activity lately (they even posted their Trello roadmap). @H1Z1 is all PS4 now. Ditto for Twitch; here’s the mega-stream from the new channel:
Downtime for the update today is expected to begin at noon EDT.
The #Z1BR Version 1.0 has been approved by QA for release tomorrow Wednesday 9/19! Downtime will begin at 9AM PDT, returning by 1PM PDT (4PM-8PM GMT). @H1Z1 https://t.co/tIst0Q90x9
— Z1BR (@Z1BattleRoyale) September 19, 2018
And Jace Hall’s explained why there hasn’t been much hype for what they’re up to:
https://twitter.com/JaceHall/status/1042396623660150785
