When Daybreak’s Columbus Nova fiasco and layoffs were hitting last month, most of the company’s MMORPGs resurfaced without missing a beat, reassuring their playerbases that the patches would continue and the titles would see ongoing support. That wasn’t the case for the survival half of the original H1Z1 known as Just Survive. The lack of communication and information had prompted many players to assume the game would be “Landmarked” – that is, finally released from early access/beta to earn a little launch money and then quietly sunsetted.
But late last night, Daybreak finally tossed its fans on Reddit a bone. Technical Director Mitch Evans apologized for the silence, saying that he still has a “small yet passionate team” working on the game.
“Right now, we are focused on making sure you continue to enjoy the game, so the majority of our resources are spent mostly on maintaining game stability, fixing game-breaking bugs, and improving anti-cheat methods,” he writes.
The mid-June patch will apparently include reductions in material requirements for base comps and explosives, movement penalties for crouching, the elimination of automatic server construction caps, fixes for bugs and memory leaks, and new anti-cheat measures. There are no promises or even hints at features to come, which is worrisome, and here’s the more disturbing bit: You won’t be able to buy crates (lockboxes) anymore, causing players to wonder just how Daybreak will monetize the game going forward (and not exactly putting the “Landmarked” rumors to rest).
“Eliminating the ability to purchase Crates. All Crates will be free, and will be created via a simple recipe. Collecting the appropriate in-game components and performing the recipe will result in a random set of three unlocked Crates.”
