The first game I ever bought from Steam Early Access was a survival sandbox called Under the Ocean. I paid $7 in June 2013, and I played it, enjoyed it, and tried out new alphas as they were released over the next few months. As time passed, the game's scope grew, devblogs and roadmaps were published, and new features like multiplayer were discussed with the community. In 2014, things began to change. Communication from the developers slowed to a trickle. Multiplayer was shelved.

On February 3, 2015, developer Paul Hart revealed that Under The Ocean's programmer had quit. Hart said he still wanted to finish the game, though he didn't know when or how it would happen because he would be "restarting the project from scratch." Refunds weren't an option—the money earned from Early Access sales was gone. Hart continued to work alone, though said he couldn't devote much time to it. The eighth alpha still exists in the libraries of those who bought it, but the game is no longer on Steam.

When we think of gambling in games our minds immediately go to loot boxes, but there's no bigger gamble than Early Access. Players hand over money thinking they're buying a game, but they're not. They're placing a bet. They have no way of knowing if they'll win, or even what they'll win. Often it works out and everyone, devs and customers, are happy. Other times players wait years and wind up with a game they don't like, one vastly different than the one they thought they were paying for, and occasionally, no game at all. And sometimes they're left with just an ancient alpha collecting dust in their library.

The Early Dozen

Steam Early Access was launched in March 2013 with a total of 12 games. Some left Early Access fairly quickly, including ArmA 3 (which launched within the year), Kerbal Space Program and Prison Architect (which arrived in 2015), while others took quite a bit longer, like Kenshi, which didn't launch until 2018. A few of those original 12 never arrived, like Under the Ocean and a rhythm game called 1… 2… 3… Kick It!, which is still in Early Access. 

Another of the original 12, Space sim Kinetic Void, left Early Access in 2014 to overwhelmingly negative reviews, largely because many players felt it hadn't launched as much as been abandoned. Survival game Starforge left Early Access in 2015 to mostly negative reviews, and the developers removed it from Steam completely in 2017.

But Early Access quickly became a big hit with developers, particularly solo devs and small teams and studios (though AAA devs and publishers have used it too), because it allowed them to earn money from their unfinished games and use it to fund the remainder of development. It was a hit with players, too, because it meant they could jump in early to play games they might otherwise have to wait years for. They could typically pay less than a full release would cost but receive a complete version when development was complete. And there was also the promise of participating in the development of a game through feedback and communication with the devs, an enticing hook for the most passionate enthusiasts. Why just play a game when you can help shape it?

All genres of games can appear in Steam Early Access, but survival games leaned on it hard, mostly due to Bohemia Interactive's DayZ. After three years as an extremely popular mod created by Dean Hall for ArmA 2 and 3, the standalone version of DayZ entered Early Access in December of 2013. It sold 400,000 copies in a week. Within a year Bohemia Interactive had sold over 3 million copies of a game that had bugs so bad players couldn't even climb ladders without dying instantly, netcode that had survivors desyncing  across the map, and zombies that could walk through walls. It was an incredibly engrossing and exciting game—I personally put in over 200 hours—but it was also a bit of a mess, and it would stay that way for years.

Pardon our dust

After DayZ became a top seller and massive success despite not even being finished, Steam quickly became packed with unfinished Early Access survival games. Many were just frameworks: an open world and a few basic survival systems to keep players busy while the devs continued to work on other features. Players could scavenge gear and supplies, eat and drink to keep their meters filled, engage in some basic crafting systems, and deal with some sort of threat: zombies usually, wild animals occasionally, and most often, other Early Access players. A new genre was born: not just survival games but Early Access survival games.

I love survival games and bought and played a ton of them in Early Access myself, many of which I barely remember now. I bought Starforge, one of the original 12. I bought Reign of Kings (made by the developers of Starforge). The Long Dark, Rust, Ark: Survival Evolved, Subnautica, Just Survive (H1Z1 at the time), Unveil, Miscreated, Empyrion, Frozen State, Hurtworld, Grav, Better Late than Dead, Three Days, The Solus Project, and at least a half-dozen more.

Some of these Early Access survival games went on to eventually be completed. Some still remain in Early Access. A few turned out great and became big or modest hits, while others stumbled, fell, and faded away like Under the Ocean. Most, at some point, drew ire from Early Access customers who became impatient with poor communication from developers, infrequent updates, and features that either never arrived or wound up being cut—a normal occurrence in closed development but one tricky to explain to thousands of people who have already paid for and are playing the game.

Feedback loop

And then there was all the waiting. As more games missed milestones and deadlines and revised their roadmaps to extend their stay in Early Access, sometimes for months or even years longer than planned, players became more skeptical of the system. Many began to feel less like they were contributing to a game's development and more like QA testers who had to pay for the privilege of finding and reporting bugs. For better or worse, they were getting what they asked for: a transparent view of the difficulties and realities of game development.

But the popularity of Early Access survival games continued. Ark: Survival Evolved sold millions of copies and is still one of the most-played games on Steam, though it weathered a number of controversies in Early Access, including selling DLC while still in an unfinished state and a sudden price jump from $30 to $60 prior to full release. The Long Dark experienced several delays before leaving Early Access, but is a great game and a massive success. Rust left Early Access last year but in an "alpha" state, according to its creator Garry Newman. It's currently one of the top ten games on Steam.

Then there's The Stomping Land, a dinosaur-based survival game that raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter before entering Steam Early Access. It was delayed and then abandoned by its creator, leaving backers unable to acquire refunds and leaving several artists on the project reportedly unpaid for their work. Just Survive spawned King of the Kill, a massively popular battle royale, but the survival mode languished for years and then shut down for good in without ever having been finished.

DayZ, meanwhile, finally left Early Access at the end of 2018, five years after it set the trend, and even after all that time it still didn't contain all the features originally planned.

That same year, another post titled "The Last Update" appeared on the Steam community page for Under The Ocean, stating that game was essentially dead. Currently if you attempt to open the last published roadmap in Google Docs, you're informed that the "File is in owner's trash," the bluntest of epitaphs. 

The developer has promised a free key to any upcoming (and currently unnamed) projects for customers that provide a receipt for Under The Ocean. "I want to start to tackle smaller projects that I can realistically finish between working a job and being a decent father, and I hope you join me for the ride," he wrote. "Maybe one day Under the Ocean will live again." 

Anything is possible. I just wouldn't bet on it.

DayZ's first paid DLC has arrived. For $14 on Steam, you can experience a new map, Livonia, which at 163 square kilometers is a bit smaller than Chernarus and may provide more frequent player encounters. But players and zombies aren't the only hazards you'll need to worry about. There are bears in DayZ now, and not just in Livonia but also in the survival game's original map, Chernarus.

"This Eastern European terrain covers the southern Topolin-Nadbór region of the larger Polish-speaking country of Livonia," read the Steam store page. "The new topography brings lush green landscapes, dense forests, overgrown fields, winding rivers, serene lakes, murky swamps, an array of dilapidated structures, and various remnants of an abandoned society."

And bears. It also brings bears.

To my eyes, Livonia doesn't really look all that different from Chernarus, though I've only seen a handful of screenshots (you can see for yourself below). I also worry a bit that since you need to buy the new map, it could fracture the DayZ community a bit—I expect tons of DayZ servers will want to host the new map, which could give players of the original Chernarus map a harder time finding a place to play. I guess we'll see.

After five years spent in Chernarus, DayZ is getting a brand new map in the form of Livonia, which is based on Arma 3's Contact Expansion map. Of course, the Livonia of DayZ will have zombies in it, as well as a new enemy type for DayZ: bears. According to an update on the DayZ website, "bears will give you a hard time if you don't know how to deal with them," which as far as I can tell, is true in real life too.

Coming in at 163 kilometres square, Livonia looks to be a prettier outing compared to its predecessor. It's strewn with lakes, rivers and "heavily forested zones", and the place is regularly hit with rain and thunderstorms, which may require protective gear. 

Bohemia Interactive hasn't provided a release date for Livonia, except to say that it's "coming soon" in tandem with update 1.06. It's also premium DLC, so expect a price tag. In the meantime, there's a trailer below.

Following a turbulent and frankly amusing couple of weeks, DayZ's Australian ban is no longer official, with the country's Classification Board issuing a new MA15+ classification today.

The new classification is the result of a 'modified' version of the game submitted to the Classification Board. This version is more than likely the one which removes the offending depictions of drug use from the game. The offending content involved the use of marijuana as a health item in the game, and if there's one thing that rubs the board the wrong way, it's incentivized drug use. Weed isn't currently in the official build of the game, though it was set to arrive via DLC. Those plans have been thwarted.

The game is still unavailable to purchase on Steam at the time of writing, though that's likely to change in the coming days. 

The board has issued several 'Refused Classification' rulings of late, which means a title is effectively banned in Australia. Of most interest was yesterday's Bonaire, which is an unannounced Rockstar Games project, more than likely an expansion for Red Dead Online. But We Happy Few and Kingdom Come Deliverance have both been banned of late too, due to recent DLC additions. 

Cheers, Kotaku.

An Australian politician has said the country's decision to ban DayZ over in-game drug use has made it look like "the wet blanket and laughing stock of the whole world".

Tim Quilty, Liberal Democratic Party member of the Victorian Legislative Council, said the "absurd" ban was triggered by Bohemia Interactive's plans to include cannabis as a healing item. The developer hasn't yet confirmed which in-game item fell foul of the Australian Classification Board, but players can use morphine to heal and the game files mention cannabis, which is illegal in Australia. 

"What makes this ban especially absurd is that Australia has an R18+ classification for videogames...refusal of classification should be reserved for illegal materials, things like child pornography and snuff films that should never have been created in the first place. It should not be used for zombie survival videogames.

"Sadly, the developers of DayZ have caved," he said in the Parliament of Victoria on Thursday, referencing Bohemia's decision to change the game worldwide because of the ban. "Australia is once again the wet blanket and laughing stock of the whole world. It's an embarrassment that we obediently let our government treat us like children. While the rest of the world is legalizing cannabis, we are banning representations of cannabis in videogames."

You can watch his speech below.

Bohemia hasn't said how it plans to change the game to comply with the Australian rating system, but as Fraser pointed out it might be as simple as changing item names, in the same way Bethesda switched morphine to Med-X in Fallout 3.

DayZ has been having a bit of trouble in Australia recently. When the survival game's Australian distributor applied for a rating from the classification board ahead of the physical release, it was rejected. The rejection, effectively a ban, extended to the digital version, which was removed from sale. 

Last week, Bohemia Interactive told me that the rejection was down to the depiction of drug use and that it was looking to find a way to keep the game available in Australia. For the time being, it looks like that solution is a global change. 

So that Australian players aren't excluded, DayZ will be changed across the board, Bohemia Interactive told Kotaku Australia. 

"At the moment, we are editing the global version of DayZ so it will fit into the Board’s requirements. The key objective is to keep the gameplay as authentic as it was, so players are not affected by this change."

The specifics of the changes haven't been detailed, and it's especially strange because DayZ doesn't depict recreational drug use. It does, however, contain morphine, which caused similar problems for Bethesda, prompting them to change its name to Med-X in Fallout. There are files for cannabis, too, though it doesn't appear in the live game.

If Fallout is anything to go by, simply changing the name should appease the board. It's all very arbitrary and unhelpful, of course, and if there was a real issue, a name change wouldn't solve anything, but at least it won't be too disruptive for players.  

Earlier in the week, DayZ was refused an age rating by the Australian Classification Board. Despite launching years ago and already having a 15+ rating, Australian distributor Five Star Games had to resubmit the game thanks to the impending launch of the physical edition. Unfortunately, the decision also extends to the digital version. 

While Bohemia Interactive told me that the digital version was not in jeopardy and was still available through storefronts like Steam, the situation has "escalated", the developer confirms.

"We are aware of the Classification Board's intention to pull DayZ from the online sales," says Bohemia Interactive. "The game was just removed from the PlayStation and Xbox stores. The reason behind the rejection to classify the game is the specifics of drug use in the game."

Where things get weird is that DayZ doesn't have drug use aside from things like morphine, specifically used here for pain relief. Here's the extent of the game's 'drugs'. They're not recreational. Unfortunately, cannabis can be found in the game files, and while it's hasn't yet to be implemented and there's no indication it will be, it seems to have riled up the board. 

Though cannabis has been decriminalised or is available for medical reasons in several parts of the world, it's still illegal in Australia. Hunting and killing people for their supplies is also illegal in Australia, though the board seems less concerned about that. 

Bohemia Interactive isn't cutting its losses, however.

"The Australian player base is a big and very important part of our community. At the moment we are looking for the best solution to keep the game on the Australian market and pass the classification according to all regulations. We will do everything in our power to keep the game playable and available for Australian gamers."   

Previously, developers have made minor changes to appease the puritanical board, so it may be that a quick fix is possible and it will be back on sale before too long.

Update: Bohemia Interactive has clarified that the classification, or absence of one, doesn't effect the digital version of DayZ, only the upcoming physical edition. It's still available on Steam in Australia. 

Original story: DayZ has been refused an age rating by the notoriously strict Australian Classification Board. It's not unusual for games to not receive a rating in Australia, often leading to developers making changes to fit the draconian rules, but DayZ has been available in Australia for years. It entered Early Access in 2013 and finally launched last year. 

The classification page (cheers, Reddit) shows the decision was made in June and was applied for by Five Star Games, an Australian distributor. The reason for it being refused classification, which essentially means it's banned, is that it depicts naughty things that might offend. 

It apparently depicts or expresses matters of "sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified."

DayZ was already rated, so it's not clear why it was refused classification when it's exactly the same game. We know DayZ is getting a physical edition this year, which is probably why distributor Five Star Games is involved. What doesn't make sense is why the rules would be different for digital and physical games. 

So far, it's yet to affect Steam, as DayZ continues to be sold in Australia, but this may halt the physical launch. I've reached out to both Bohemia Interactive and Five Star Games for more details. 

DayZ, the game about roaming a post-Soviet wasteland looking for can openers (among other things), is getting a battle royale mode in the form of Survivor GameZ. DayZ veterans will recognise the name: it's the name of a mod and tournament founded in 2012 by former DayZ Creative Director Brian Hicks and Jordan Tayer, back before the core game went standalone. Now, six years later, it's coming to the official standalone game.

The first closed alpha is "just around the corner", according to the official DayZ Twitter account, and sign-ups are available here. The original mod supported 32 player duos, and played a tad differently to modern battle royale games. But its undeniably influenced the genre as a whole, with PUBG creator Brendan Greene citing it as an influence.

But none of the people responsible for the original mod are involved in this new Bohemia-helmed iteration. Hicks, who left Bohemia last year, told us in an email that he'll be rooting for the dev team at Bohemia Interactive Bratislava, but hopes they'll not rush it out the door.

"The Survivor GameZ was a labor of love for the team involved in it," Hicks said. "Long before the battle royale craze took hold, the Survivor GameZ team managed to set records in the video game livestream industry and create genuine memorable moments. This was all done on a shoe string budget, and with the free time we all had outside of our jobs back then. Even though it took years to convince Bohemia Interactive's management that a team last man standing experience in a post-apocalyptic world was worth investing in, we were all elated when they chose to purchase the property from us. Early on there were a significant amount of lofty plans associated with the sale. A Bohemia Interactive Seattle office, Survivor GameZ as a stand alone title, and while we did push forward on many of them, none of them seemed to come to fruition. Despite that, Bohemia Interactive Bratislava has pushed forward with a DayZ DLC model - and I'm certain they have put together an exciting experience."

He continued: "That said, neither myself nor the rest of the original founding Survivor GameZ team have been engaged by management at Bohemia Interactive in regards to the design, or functionality of the Survivor GameZ. Due to this, I am uncertain as to the state or feel of the offering they have talked about today. I can only hope they have held true to the design, and heeded my words of caution when we made those early plans. That the Survivor GameZ can *not* make a reappearance until the game itself is reliable, smooth, and as bug free as possible."

Survivor GameZ was a community-driven enterprise created by enthusiasts, so its audience could forgive its shortcomings. "We got away with a lot with the original Survivor GameZ, primarily due to the fact that those competing in it understood that this was a part time gig for the team - and that we all had other responsibilities," Hicks said. "That does not apply to a professionally released game or DLC, and the market for battle royale style experiences is seasoned, with an intelligent and demanding audience."

Survivor GameZ will at least play quite differently to the likes of PUBG and Fortnite. As the alpha sign-up page explains, each match comprises three phases, with the first two of these confined to specific parts of the map. Available loot changes between these phases, as well as hotspots where the most powerful items spawn.

The third phase opens the map entirely but spawns an "endgame interaction object" which, naturally, will attract remaining players. "This object is always in the lumber yard area," Bohemia's description reads. The player's distance from this area will determine the damage they take–the closer they are, the safer they are. 

It'll be interesting to see whether Survivor GameZ can gain traction in a flooded scene.

February, 2013. Barack Obama is in the White House. ‘Thrift Shop’ by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is topping the charts. The Harlem Shake is taking the internet by storm. And DayZ, a mod for Arma II, has become such a hit, Bohemia Interactive puts a plan in motion to turn it into a full game. Part survival sandbox, part social experiment, the mod throws 64 players into a bleak post-Soviet apocalypse, sits back, and lets them make their own fun.

Five years later and DayZ is a standalone game, having gone through an extended Early Access period. And, well, nothing much has changed. There’s something weirdly comforting about the fact that DayZ is still DayZ, with its clunky controls, buggy zombies, and commitment to making surviving as punishingly hard as possible. It’s kind of absurd that, in a 1.0 release, there are still problems that have been around since the alpha days. But honestly, I wasn’t expecting much else. For better or worse, it’s almost exactly the game I remember, warts and all.

You still have to run for miles to meet up with friends. The zombies still get stuck in walls or just completely fail to notice you at all. You can scour an entire town for supplies only to find one dirty jacket, a tin opener, and no tins. And the chances that you’ll be killed by some unseen sniper, usually seconds after you finally find something good, is always high. At least those damn ladders have finally been sorted out. Veteran players will remember the agony of climbing a ladder and ending up inexplicably dead at the bottom of it.

If this all sounds a bit miserable, it is. Minute to minute, this is about as gruelling as survival games get. You have an ever-dwindling parade of meters to manage—thirst, hunger, temperature, and so on—and the general scarcity of items can make staying alive an ordeal. There’s nothing more disheartening in DayZ than trekking for miles to a town, only to see all the doors lying open: a surefire sign that someone has already been and no doubt thoroughly looted the place.

But this does complement the hopeless, melancholy atmosphere of the game. The map, Chernarus, is a former Soviet republic, and dripping in misery. You get the feeling that even before the zombies arrived, this would’ve been an unpleasant place to get lost in. But there’s a quiet beauty to be found out there too, particularly in the rolling farmland, dense forests, and sleepy rural towns. It’s a fantastic setting, and a welcome change from the more familiar Western post-apocalypses that usually feature in these games.

The largest concentration of players tends to be around around cities and military bases—where the best loot is often found—meaning you can travel in the wilds pretty much undisturbed. When I play DayZ, I’m constantly on the move, travelling between towns, landmarks, and other points of interest, grabbing whatever I can find, avoiding trouble if I can. But that means a lot of uneventful running. There are vehicles, but they’re often missing parts or fuel, and locating them can be a real chore for a solo player.

The sandbox nature of the game means that getting ‘geared up’ will be most players’ main goal: finding a gun, ammo, bandages, food, drink, and maybe a nice helmet or something. But the more you hoard, the more nerve-racking the game becomes, because you know that you’re just one trigger-happy survivor or mischievous troll away from losing it all. I actually love this, because it makes death mean something. When you die you’re unceremoniously dumped back to a random starting location with no gear, and knowing this makes every decision, especially with other players around, loaded with danger.

The real thrill of DayZ, and the reason I’ve played both the mod and the standalone version for hundreds of hours each, is in the feeling you get when you inevitably bump into another survivor. Even now my heart pounds when I’m exploring a town or wandering in the wilderness and I see another player ahead. Sometimes, but not that often these days, they might wave you down for a friendly chat and some beans. Or they might helpfully warn you about a group of bandits (DayZ slang for players who kill other players) in the next town down the road.

But they’ll probably just shoot you on sight. There are a lot of reasons for this. They might just enjoy killing people. They might want your loot. Or, and this happened to me, the game has turned them into a horrible person. See, I used to be friendly. I’d approach people, wave, say hello. I’d give them advice or ask if they needed a hand. But after several instances of people pretending to be friendly then stabbing me in the back (literally), or luring me into an ambush, I’ve become wary of other survivors to the point of fearful paranoia.

That’s brilliant, though. It’s what makes DayZ such a fascinating, compelling multiplayer game, and far more interesting to me than something like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. In games like that, your only interaction with people is, ultimately, shooting them. But in DayZ, every encounter with another player is an opportunity for a story. Even if you get robbed or handcuffed or humiliated, it’ll be something you remember. Incidentally, make sure you play with a mic. Not responding vocally when someone says hello, or orders you to do something at gunpoint, will likely just get you killed.

I haven’t really talked about the zombies yet, because they’re the least exciting thing in the game. Which is, perhaps, a little odd in a game about a zombie apocalypse. When they aren’t stuck in the scenery they run dumbly at you, and sometimes they phase in and out of existence like your internet connection can’t keep up with them. Then when it comes to actually shooting or smacking one with a melee weapon, there’s no sense of physicality at all.

Fighting a zombie feels like swatting at a hologram. The combat really is abysmal, and there’s no sense of challenge or satisfaction attached to it. They’re better than they were in the early days of the standalone, but only just. The result of this is that, rather than something to be feared, the undead are just annoying. There was a point in the mod when the zombies didn’t work at all, and I enjoyed that a more because there was nothing getting in the way of the real heart of the game: the interactions between players.

DayZ is a difficult game to review, because a lot of the time it’s pretty boring. There are long stretches of nothing; of rambling across seemingly endless fields, not finding anything in towns, never encountering another soul. But what keeps you going is knowing that, around the next corner, something incredibly exciting might happen. A firefight with a rival group of survivors in a ruined city. A knife-edge stand-off with a gun-toting rival. Someone who hasn’t seen you, meaning you might be able to sneak up, stick an axe in their back, and steal that nice jacket they’re wearing. Hey, don't judge me. It's dog eat dog out there.

These snatches of drama are fleeting, but in the right moment there are few games as exciting as DayZ. And, similar to EVE Online, knowing that everything (except the zombies) is player-driven makes it feel extra special. If you get tricked and robbed by a group of bandits, it wasn’t some event scripted by a developer: it was dreamed up by a real, thinking human, and that really adds to the experience. In one combat encounter—my backpack stuffed with hard-earned supplies, my friend lying bleeding in the corner, two assailants hidden in the distance—the exhilaration was incredible. These were intelligent humans I was facing, not AI drones I could easily outsmart.

But then it was back to running around the fields, scavenging for supplies, failing to find any, then dying and restarting—again and again. DayZ comes into its own when you get a foothold, managing to locate enough supplies and weapons to defend yourself and stay alive. But getting to that point is absolutely gruelling sometimes, and that’s where a lot of people will bounce off it. It’s a game where you have to work hard to achieve anything, and even then it can be immediately snatched away from you if you make one stupid mistake, or a player decides they want to shoot you for no particular reason.

Occasionally, in small doses, DayZ is one of the best multiplayer games on PC. But a lot of the time it’s a slow, dull, frustrating, and meandering mess of bugs, broken zombie AI, and weightless combat. So I don’t know what to think, really. Some of the stories this game has created will stick with me forever, and that’s something to be celebrated. But it’s also unforgiving, messy, and doesn’t have much respect for your time. If you want a social survival experience that doesn’t pull any punches, set in an evocative and atmospheric world, then DayZ might be worth investigating. But if you’re after a solid, polished game that always does what it’s supposed to, you’re going to be disappointed.