H1Z1 Splits Into Two Games Feb. 17, Will No Longer Be Free-To-Play

By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted: February 5, 2016

1+1 = 2, and apparently H+1+Z+1 = 2, as well. Daybreak Game Company today announced that H1Z1 will split off into two titles, one focusing on the survival aspect of the game and one focusing on the battle royale part of the game.

H1Z1: Just Survive will be the title of the survival-mode version of the game, while H1Z1: King of the Kill will be the battle royale part. Each will have its own dedicated development team and resources, and develop mostly independently of each other. The split will happen on Steam on Feb. 17; anyone who owns the base H1Z1 game before then will have both games. After the 17th, you'll have to pay $19.99 for each.

Oh, right -- neither version of H1Z1 will be free-to-play any more. That might be the right choice for survival games, but it just feels like a bit of a bait and switch, and it deserves more of an explanation than just a brief answer to an FAQ question. Moreover, it makes me wonder about the future of EverQuest Next and whether that game will still be free-to-play... whenever...

In any case, both titles will remain in early access for the time being, with King of the Kill launching fully on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One this summer, while Just Survive remains in early access for the remainder of 2016. And this will probably be the last article you see on this site about either. So, what do you think of the news?

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In this article: H1Z1, Daybreak Game Company.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

NOjustNOO 8 years ago

Well this doesnt come as a surprise from former SoE.. adding them to the boycott/liars list.. so who came up with this idea apparently they say gamers have been asking for them to split the game.
to me it looks like 20E + 20E = Tripple A title price for what? someone has just taken this shit to the next level no no DLC's we're going to chop a game completly in half and charge dubble the price to glue it back together if you want it.. dafuq 2016 and still going backwards.

Demobendo 8 years ago

Whats funny is I wouldn't have ever heard about this game if it wasn't for mmobomb first "ya would have seen it on steam but before it was on steam I saw it here." Makes you wonder if they used free advertisement to get the game rolling on every mmo website including the free ones to gain free advertisement before going pay to play. To be honest I think many games are doing things because it makes free mmo sites like mmobomb create articles about it to gain free players.. "Free in a way" they get free game accounts in return so ya..

Todoran 8 years ago

Daycrap Studiouzzz strike again..... im never going to suport them its to bad because they have the only super hero 3d mmo "fremium" and a "zombie survival" the rest is boobs and orc and elves.

Gray 8 years ago

when i read f2p i was confused, but then i somewhat remembered that h1z1 was supposed to be f2p at launch, wasnt it? its been so long in early access that no one would even want it to go f2p i think.
i dont really care about the split, but i would like to see some performance optimization, game runs terrible for how it looks.

Urs00 8 years ago

well, now this is another game that will die before launch, the ONLY thing this game had to compete with dayz was the f2p model, now it has nothing, it isn't even a good game compared to dayz and dayz is awful

this is what happens when "investors" take control of game development, I knew they would do things like that (in fact, they did worse than what I imagined, getting rid of f2p model is not even a smart move in terms of profit), forget EQ Next, if it does come out, it won't be what they promised, what we were promised was a good game, this isn't profitable

and btw, this is why people shouldn't buy Founder's Pack

rickshaw 8 years ago

One the dumbest moves ever. This isn't that great a game either, so we've not really lost much at all. They on the other hand just lost players/customers by a silly split of the game. Once this takes hold, I see a fore closure & major loss in support. The mind is baffled by some of crazy decision these devs make during their development stages, its like we as players along with our comments in their forums, don't even matter or even exist, & yet they want us their to fill their numbers quoter.

Nyobari 8 years ago

Well, we can throw all F2P promises from former SOE in the trash with Daybreak owning them.

This is why you don't announce monetization until late in the development process, folks. Broken promises are far worse than no promises.