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
Get caught up on the whole H1Z1 saga from the last half year and change:
NantG continues negotiations with Daybreak to resurrect H1Z1’s Just Survive
H1Z1’s PC team makes the game look more old-school than ever before
Jace Hall denies report about H1Z1’s esports league insolvency, view manipulation, and missing money
H1Z1’s esports league is basically toast, ESPN reports
Daybreak confirms that ex-H1Z1 sandbox Just Survive is still sunsetting tomorrow
H1Z1’s PC ‘Z1 Battle Royale’ gets its first big update under its new joint studio today
Daybreak announces new investment, new H1Z1 and EverQuest mobile titles, and a new esports arena
H1Z1’s professional league is allegedly struggling in viewers, attendance, and actually paying its players
H1Z1 fans are quibbling over whether Jace Hall can really save the game on PC
Jace Hall confirms that he’s H1Z1’s new PC lead, promises the sky
H1Z1 has officially launched on the PlayStation 4 as Jace Hall joins the H1Z1 PC team
“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. “”
How bad do you have to be to get fired from a job you’re not paid to do :D
Seems like Jace did a decent job of getting the PC game back on a track that dedicated KotK players are interested in. I don’t know if anything could be done to make this game competitive in the BR genre again, but it seems like they got the game back to the state people liked it in.
The obvious: You get what you pay for.
He did this for free?
I…have so, so many questions. I don’t want to view this as something inherently negative, but damn if it’s not hard to given this games history.
Maybe he actually liked the game?
Doesn’t matter. Fixes on side stuff won’t help when the core of the game is broken/boring.
Maybe he was just hoping he’d benefit from the esports longer-term by getting PC back on track? I certainly hadn’t realized it was a temporary or unpaid assignment either.
So we can expect another name change right?
I WOULD LIKE TO DEPART THIS RIDE, MR BONES. IT IS TOO WILD FOR ME.