H1Z1’s PC version, Z1 Battle Royale, sees another leadership reshuffle as Jace Hall steps down

March 13, 2019 5:00 PM

Yesterday, Daybreak and NantGMobile announced that Jace Hall is no longer consulting on the PC version of H1Z1 known as Z1 Battle Royale, having “reverted back to a player.”

Hall was brought on in August of last year as the project lead with the support of the PC community in an attempt to rescue that version of the game and restore some old-school functionality for the title, even as the PS4 version (which got to keep the H1Z1 name in the divorce) surged in popularity and forked off in a different direction. Under Hall’s tenure, we saw the zombie survival side of the game, Just Survive, fail to survive, as well as the apparent collapse of the H1Z1 esports league (which was loaded with financial drama over which Hall presided).

“Todays new @Z1BattleRoyale update to S3 means I now return to ‘player-only’ status,” Hall tweeted. “Im no longer admin or involved in dev. It’s been an honor to help where I could & S3 is hopefully now a proper foundation. The dev team has kicked ass & the future is up to them & the community!”

Interestingly, according to Z1BR’s executive producer, Hall was never paid for his work on the game. “[Jace Hall’s] involvement with NantG & @Z1BattleRoyale was on his own dime the entire time,” Anthony Castoro says. “He wasn’t a paid employee or a consultant. He was a passionate leader who inspired me and others to come together for the sake of H1.”

The game itself saw a major patch last week, signaling the reshuffle, along with an update today.

Reminder: It’s patch day! Servers will be coming down at 2 PM PDT // 10 PM GMT // 7 AM JST for today’s update. Expected down time is 3 hours. #update

List of some of the changes on https://t.co/2telfDCAxd

Full patch notes available when servers come down.

— Z1BR (@Z1BattleRoyale) March 13, 2019