The H1Z1 saga has taken yet another bizarre, confusing twist, as developer NantG Mobile has announced that it is giving up on the newly-renamed Z1 Battle Royale and returning it to original developer Daybreak Games. The studio did not confirm that the change has resulted in layoffs, as reported last week by Massively Overpowered, but said that it "will focus on its core mission of developing mobile games moving forward," and has "refocused our team toward this vision." 

A little history probably wouldn't hurt, given all that's happened so far. H1Z1 originally went live on Steam Early Access in 2015, and then split into two games in 2016: H1Z1: Just Survive, the multiplayer survival game, and H1Z1: King of the Kill, a competitive battle royale. The following year, the H1Z1 bit was cut from the first game, leaving it as Just Survive (which was closed in August 2018), while King of the Kill went back to being just H1Z1, and was then rebranded to Z1 Battle Royale last year. And after all that dicking around, we're right back where we started, except with a battle royale instead of a survival game. 

"Despite the team’s determination and commitment to revive Z1BR’s player base with our recent Season 3 launch update, we soon realized that the road is still paved with many challenges that preclude us from long-term success, including the confusion it caused by having both NantG Mobile and Daybreak managing the same game under two separate brands," NantG announced on Steam.

"Based on these events and the current state of the game, NantG Mobile will focus on its core mission of developing mobile games moving forward, and we have refocused our team toward this vision." 

NantG said that Daybreak has committed to keeping the Z1 Battle Royale servers online and continuing development of the game, and that it's working with Daybreak to help ensure a smooth transition. I've emailed Daybreak for more information and will update if I receive a reply.

Update: Daybreak has posted a message on Steam saying that it is reacting to NantG's decision to drop Z1BR "in real-time," and thus still formulating its plans for the game's long-term future.

"We can share today that servers will remain up, that we have no plans to change the name of the game, or make any other big changes that will affect your current Z1BR gameplay experience. Our number one goal throughout this entire transition is to make sure there is minimal disruption to the game’s service," the studio said. "That means you can still expect to receive Z1BR news through existing Z1BR community channels. It also means that we’ll continue to support the game—through hotfixes, live maintenance, other service updates—as our team works to get back up to speed."

"Z1BR is a game that so many of us here at Daybreak have worked on and  supported in myriad ways over the years, and we want to do right by our  community.  As we work through this transition, we only ask for your  continued patience as we prepare our plans for the game’s future."

An estimated 13 employees were laid off by NantG as a result of the decision to drop the game, according to Gamasutra, nearly all of whom had been working on Z1 Battle Royale. The bulk of those employees came over to NantG from Daybreak to work on the game, but will only be given severance for their time at NantG, which one former employee said means that some of them will lose out on "upwards of 18 years worth of seniority."

H1Z1's third season arrived today, as well as a rebranding to Z1 Battle Royale, marking the third name change the game has undergone (originally, it was called H1Z1: King of the Kill). More than just the name has changed: a new developer, NantG, has taken the helm and is promising to revitalize the game by 'restoring' a number of its old features like animations, vehicle mechanics, guns and combat, and even the map itself to bring it back to "the glory days."

It's an interesting strategy, I guess: reverting the game back to how it was during the height of its popularity (and it was extremely popular) and undoing many of the changes fans have disagreed with over the past few years. Nothing seems to have gone untouched, including the UI:

"The first thing you see when you launch a game is the loading screens and the front end user interface," the patch notes read. "It is a massive point of nostalgia for players and we knew we had to get it in for this patch."

The clock has also been turned back on many of the weapons' recoil, sway, and bullet speed, and the patch even goes so far as to completely remove the 'points of interest' that were added to the map over the past couple years. It also restores the lighting, textures, trees, and roads from the King of the Kill era. Wow. It's like a remaster, but in reverse. A de-master?

It's not just old stuff making a return, there's some new stuff as well, like an in-match mission system, new daily and weekly challenges, and more. Is this what H1Z1—er, Z1BR—needs to pull players back in? Well, it peaked at about 13,000 concurrent players today, which is more than the typical 1,500 or so I've been seeing in the past few days. It'll be interesting to see if they stick around.

Here's a look at Z1BR's extensive patch notes and Season 3 skins.

Daybreak Games Company, the studio behind battle royale game H1Z1 and online FPS Planetside 2, has laid off a significant number of employees.

The company did not specify how many staff were let go but its founder John Smedley, who no longer works at the developer, estimated on Twitter that 70 people had been laid off, representing nearly a third of the workforce. "70 people is a lot," he said in a tweet that has since been deleted, adding that he was "really, really angry" about the news.

In a statement to various outlets including Gamasutra, Daybreak confirmed it had cut staff, and said it was "optimising our structure to ensure we best position ourselves for continued success in the years to come. 

"This effort has required us to make some changes within the organization and we are doing everything we can to support those impacted in this difficult time. As we look to improve efficiencies and realign resources, we remain focused on supporting our existing games and development of our future titles."

It follows a round of layoffs in April, less than two months after H1Z1 went free-to-play, a shift which itself happened less than two weeks after it launched as a paid-for title.

The company's headquarter is in San Diego, California, but it has studios in Austin, Boston and South Korea. It was formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment.

Battle royale shooter H1Z1 is getting a facelift. Under a "re-formed dev team", it will soon be known as Z1 Battle Royale, and its latest update aims to help smooth the transition by tackling lengthy waits for matches and adjusting a bunch of weapons.

Bullet speed, bullet drop and fire rate have been tweaked on a variety of weapons, including the AR-15, AK-47, M-9 and Shotgun—you can read about the changes in the patch notes. But perhaps more interesting are the changes to matchmaking, which should ensure players can jump into matches faster.

H1Z1 still has a decent player count—as I write this, 7,000 people are playing—but that's not enough to ensure matches instantly fill up. To counter that, Daybreak Games is capping the lobby wait time at 135 seconds, at which point matches will start as long as there are two or more players waiting. The fewer the number of players, the smaller the starting safe zone.

You'll also no longer be able to choose where you spawn in solos, duos or fives, but the dev team has changed starting locations to "ensure decent looting at start of match". The in-game time has also been set to mid-afternoon, and the weather will be sunny 90% of the time, making it easier to spot enemies.

Lastly, all matches will now count as ranked matches, so you'll be rewarded even if there's only a handful of players, and you'll be matched with other players based on your account level.

Once again, you can read the full patch notes for more detail.

Developer Daybreak Games recently retired H1Z1's survival mode, citing low player counts.

Daybreak Games is retiring H1Z1's survival game, Just Survive.

In a letter on the official website, the post—simply signed off as The Just Survive Team at Daybreak Games—said the decision was a difficult one, and while there was plenty of promise and loyalty from its fans, there weren't enough people playing it to maintain development. 

"After careful consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to sunset Just Survive on Wednesday, October 24 at 11am PT (7pm UK time). The excitement of the game’s promise was palpable and its loyal community is still full of ideas for its future. Unfortunately, we are no longer in a position to fulfill its greatness and the current population of the game makes it untenable to maintain."

After a little history about the game's development and giving thanks to the "passionate players" who brought the "greatest stories", the post went onto confirm that Steam purchases and in-game transactions have already been suspended, and that the servers will go dark on October 24, 2018.

"Thank you for taking the time to play the game, to help test it when we opened the Test servers to the public, and for all of the suggestions and feedback throughout Early Access. We truly appreciate everyone’s commitment and your contributions throughout the development process. Our promise is to do better and learn from every experience along the way."

"Just Survive was part of our first Early Access project, and we learned a great deal during its development," the post said. "We hope everyone had amazing adventures across Pleasant Valley and Badwater Canyon."

If you feel you might be entitled to a refund, Daybreak urge you to head here for more information.

Despite being an early iteration of H1Z1, the closure of Just Survive will not affect the battle royale shooter, which became free-to-play earlier this year and is still receiving regular updates. 

Free-to-play battle royale shooter H1Z1 is getting a new map today called Outbreak, an 8x8km battle royale arena that features "new terrain, points of interest, and art and textures". And keep your eye out for few areas familiar to long-time players of H1Z1, because the map includes several landmarks from the original map (though they've been redesigned). You can see video of some of those landmarks above, such as Pleasant Valley and Misty Peak Dam, and there's an announcement trailer and some screenshots below.

"Alongside the new map, the update includes changes to gameplay mechanics that allow players to recapture the classic feel of H1Z1," reads the press release sent to PC Gamer. "This includes new run and jump movements and animations to create a faster and more responsive system that keeps combat fun and intuitive. Classic audio cues also make their return with this update."

This is great news for H1Z1 players. While the existing battle royale map has undergone a lot of changes over the years, it's still a map originally designed for what is now called Just Survive, Daybreak's open world survival sandbox. With Outbreak, H1Z1 will be getting a map specifically built with battle royale in mind.

Outbreak is available for solo players, duos, and squads of five. Find out more about today's update here.

H1Z1 publisher Daybreak Game Company, formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment, has confirmed that an unknown number of employees have been laid off. The cuts come less than two months after H1Z1, an early battle royale game, went free to play, a shift which itself happened just over a week after it launched as a premium game. 

"Daybreak confirms we are realigning our workforce to better position our company for the future. Because of this, we have had to make an extremely difficult decision to part ways with some of our employees across various disciplines at the studio. We are doing everything we can to take care of each affected individual by providing them appropriate transition assistance," a company spokesperson said in an email. 

"Daybreak remains focused on publishing and developing large-scale online games and will continue to service our existing and long-standing games and franchises." 

The number of people laid off wasn't released, but former chief publishing officer Laura Naviaux Sturr revealed on Twitter yesterday that she's no longer with the company. 

Daybreak develops and publishes games including H1Z1 and its former open-world survival side Just Survive, Planetside 2, DC Universe Online, Everquest, and Everquest 2. The company also recently launched the H1Z1 Pro League, which premiered last weekend in Las Vegas. 

H1Z1, which which left Early Access just over a week ago and added a cars-only battle royale mode called Auto Royale has made another sharp turn in its already twisty-turny development path. At 10 am Pacific today, Daybreak's battle royale shooter will be become a free-to-play game.

Of course, millions of players purchased H1Z1 during its stint in Early Access, and if you're one of them, there's a reward:

"To thank all of our loyal players who helped make awesome, game-changing decisions during our time in Early Access, we'll be rewarding everyone who already purchased the game with the “H1Z1 Appreciation Pack”, containing the following items: 

• Gasrunner Hoodie
• Bloom Survivor T-Shirt
• Splinter Camo ARV
• 10 Victory Crates
• 10,000 Skulls

To support H1Z1's new free-to-play model, there are naturally new purchasable DLC bundles being added, which can be bought for $20, $50, or $100 and which contain various skins, crates, and Skulls (H1Z1's in-game currency).

This is the latest twist in an already twisted history. If you recall, H1Z1 was originally conceived as a free-to-play title, back when Daybreak was Sony Online Entertainment and back when H1Z1 was an Early Access multiplayer survival game. King of the Kill emerged first as a battle royale mode for H1Z1, then split off and became a standalone game, at which point plans for both games being free-to-play titles after Early Access were dropped. Now, in a way, we've come full circle. King of the Kill is now called H1Z1, and you can play it for free. 

H1Z1 is launching out of Early Access today and features a new team-based, cars-only mode called Auto Royale. The mode consists of up to to 30 teams of four players (one drives while the other three passengers lean out of the windows and shoot) speeding across the map as the circle of gas closes, collecting power-ups (like oil slicks, smoke screens, and double-jumps), launching off ramps, and doing battle with each other.

I got to play a couple rounds of Auto Royale this week on a test server, and you can see gameplay video and read all about it here.

As for H1Z1 itself, it's launching with a few changes to its standard battle royale experience. Most notably, players will be able to select the map grid they want to spawn over—until now, you spawned over the map in a random location. This tactical deployment, as it's being called, more closely mirrors battle royale games such as PUBG, which lets you decide when you want to leap from the plane and thus gives players a good degree of control over what part of the map they want to begin playing in.

A new heatmap, updated every few seconds, will give players an idea of where other players are landing. Also, players will usually (about 80% of the time, says Daybreak) be able to see the area of the starting safe-zone (the circle of gas) before they spawn, which will also help them decide where to land. I was told the price of H1Z1 will not change as it departs Early Access: it'll still be $20.

It's been a long road, so to speak, for H1Z1's exit from Early Access. The battle royale game started off as a popular mode for Sony Online Entertainment's free-to-play multiplayer survival game, H1Z1. After SOE became Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1 split into two different games: H1Z1: Just Survive (the survival game) and H1Z1: King of the Kill (battle royale). Both were in Early Access and both became paid-for games rather than free-to-play. 

More recently, Just Survive dropped the H1Z1 from its title (and remains in Early Access) and King of the Kill dropped everything but H1Z1 from its title. And now, H1Z1 is finally out of Early Access. Gosh. What a long, strange development cycle it's been.

Along the way, H1Z1 became a popular standalone battle royale game, opening the door for PUBG and Fortnite, which have since surpassed H1Z1 in player count and popularity. While its numbers have dwindled in the past six months (its peak was around 150,000 concurrent players, and it's now more regularly around 10,000), H1Z1 still has a pro scene and several yearly tournaments.

H1Z1 is launching out of Early Access today and features a new team-based, cars-only mode called Auto Royale. The mode consists of up to to 30 teams of four players (one drives while the other three passengers lean out of the windows and shoot) speeding across the map as the circle of gas closes, collecting power-ups (like oil slicks, smoke screens, and double-jumps), launching off ramps, and doing battle with each other.

I got to play a couple rounds of Auto Royale this week on a test server, and you can see gameplay video and read all about it here.

As for H1Z1 itself, it's launching with a few changes to its standard battle royale experience. Most notably, players will be able to select the map grid they want to spawn over—until now, you spawned over the map in a random location. This tactical deployment, as it's being called, more closely mirrors battle royale games such as PUBG, which lets you decide when you want to leap from the plane and thus gives players a good degree of control over what part of the map they want to begin playing in.

A new heatmap, updated every few seconds, will give players an idea of where other players are landing. Also, players will usually (about 80% of the time, says Daybreak) be able to see the area of the starting safe-zone (the circle of gas) before they spawn, which will also help them decide where to land. I was told the price of H1Z1 will not change as it departs Early Access: it'll still be $20.

It's been a long road, so to speak, for H1Z1's exit from Early Access. The battle royale game started off as a popular mode for Sony Online Entertainment's free-to-play multiplayer survival game, H1Z1. After SOE became Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1 split into two different games: H1Z1: Just Survive (the survival game) and H1Z1: King of the Kill (battle royale). Both were in Early Access and both became paid-for games rather than free-to-play. 

More recently, Just Survive dropped the H1Z1 from its title (and remains in Early Access) and King of the Kill dropped everything but H1Z1 from its title. And now, H1Z1 is finally out of Early Access. Gosh. What a long, strange development cycle it's been.

Along the way, H1Z1 became a popular standalone battle royale game, opening the door for PUBG and Fortnite, which have since surpassed H1Z1 in player count and popularity. While its numbers have dwindled in the past six months (its peak was around 150,000 concurrent players, and it's now more regularly around 10,000), H1Z1 still has a pro scene and several yearly tournaments.