Z1 Battle Royale | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Daybreak Game Company |
Publisher(s) | Daybreak Game Company |
Producer(s) | Chris Wynn |
Programmer(s) | Brendan Greene |
Composer(s) | Cris Velasco |
Engine | ForgeLight |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Battle royale |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Z1 Battle Royale (formerly H1Z1 and King of the Kill) is a battle royale game developed and published by Daybreak Game Company. The game's development began after the original H1Z1 was spun off into two separate projects in early 2016: H1Z1: Just Survive and H1Z1: King of the Kill. The games were further split as separate projects in October 2017, with Just Survive dropping the H1Z1 name, and King of the Kill becoming simply H1Z1.
After three years of being in early access for Windows, H1Z1 officially released as a free-to-play game in February 2018, later released for the PlayStation 4 in August 2018. A month later, development of the game was transferred to NantG Mobile, who attempted to "revert" (redevelop) the game back to how it was in March 2017 (Pre-Season 3), rebranding it as Z1 Battle Royale with their Season 3 update. In April 2019, development of the game was given back over to Daybreak.
Z1 Battle Royale was originally released on Steam's early access program on January 15, 2015, as H1Z1. [1] At release, the game suffered from numerous technical issues, such as players reporting that they could not login to their account or enter any active server. [2] A new bug, which made all servers go offline, was also introduced to the game after the developer released a patch to fix other problems. [3] Despite the unstable launch, John Smedley, CEO of Daybreak Game Company, announced that the game had sold over a million copies by March 2015. [4]
In February 2016, it was announced by Daybreak that the game had been split into two separate projects with their own dedicated development teams, with the game being rebranded as King of the Kill while the other became Just Survive . [5] [6] Later that year, it was announced that development of the console versions were paused in order to focus on the Windows version of the game, which was given an official release date of September 20, 2016. [7] However, a week prior release, the game's executive producer stated that due to many features remaining unfinished by then, the game would remain in early access until further notice. As a compromise, the game received a large update on September 20, including many of the features intended for the official release. [8]
A televised tournament for the game, titled H1Z1: Fight for the Crown, aired in April 2017 on The CW. [9] In October 2017, it was announced that the game would be dropping its King of the Kill subtitle, becoming known as simply H1Z1. [10] An invitational tournament was held during TwitchCon at the Long Beach Convention Center the same month. [11] Additionally in October 2017, the "H1Z1 Pro League" was announced, which was a partnership between Daybreak Games and Twin Galaxies to create a sustainable, professional eSports league for the game. [12]
The game was fully released out of early access on February 28, 2018, with updates to combat, gameplay, and a new gamemode known as Auto Royale. [13] [14] The update also launched "Season 1", introducing a new updated scoring system that rewards players who get kills and place well in matches consistently. [15] A week after release, it was announced that the game would be going back to free-to-play. [16] It was released in early access for the PlayStation 4 on May 22, 2018, gaining over ten million players in over a month, and was officially released on August 7, 2018. [17] [18] [19] The game features a seasonal battle pass option that offers character cosmetics. [20]
In March 2019, the game was rebranded as Z1 Battle Royale under the development of NantG Mobile. The update reverted the majority of the changes made to the game's mechanics, weapon balancing, and user interface to a build of the game from early 2017. In addition, a new mission system, as well as ranked play, including monthly tournaments between the top 75 players in a region, were added. [21] [22] The following month it was announced that the game's development would be handed back over to Daybreak Games, with NantG citing the "many challenges" arriving from the confusion the game caused by having both themselves and Daybreak managing the same game under two separate brands as the reason why. [23] Just Survive would later be cancelled in October 2018. [24]
Z1 Battle Royale is a battle royale game in which up to a hundred and fifty players compete against each other in a last man standing deathmatch. Players can choose to play solo, in a duo, or in groups of five, with the goal of being the final person or final team remaining. [25]
Players start each match by parachuting in from a random location above the map. Once they land, they must search for a way to defend themselves. This can take the form of anything from grabbing a weapon and actively hunting other players, to hiding while other players kill one another. Vehicles are placed throughout the world, allowing players to chase down opponents or make a quick getaway. Players can scavenge a variety of supplies from their surroundings, including weapons, equipment, and first aid kits. The game also features a crafting system that allows players to create makeshift tools, such as deconstructing scavenged items into functional bandages or body armor.
As the game progresses, a toxic gas cloud compresses the map, dealing damage to players who remain in it. This effectively makes the playable portion of the map smaller, so that players are eventually forced to confront one another in close quarters. The gas spreads in timed increments, dealing a greater degree of damage in the later stages of the match.
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | (PC) 70/100 [26] (PS4) 66/100 [27] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Game Informer | 8/10 [28] |
GameSpot | 7/10 [29] |
IGN | 7/10 [30] |
Z1 Battle Royale received "mixed or average" reviews according to Metacritic. By the start of 2017, the game has been a fixture in the top most played games on Steam. [31] [32] Although it predated Fortnite and PUBG: Battlegrounds in the Battle Royale genre, the game has not been able to maintain its position, ultimately losing a significant portion of the playerbase. [33] [34] [35] [36]
The game has been experiencing large amounts of bugs since 2015, which has led to many users leaving the game for other battle royale titles. [37] In August 2017, a Combat Update which changed spray patterns for many of the weapons and tweaked movement has been released which also resulted in backlash from the game's users. [38]
The game has also taken a hit due to multiple unscheduled server downtime occurrences caused either by DDoS attacks or server strain. [39] [40]
On the 5th of April 2019, development of Z1 Battle Royale was returned to Daybreak. For the following months, Daybreak would take a multitude of content from H1Z1 PS4 and publish it to the PC game, even though this is not what the community wanted. A list of things that was added include:
- Ranch Rifle (Originally replaced the AK-47 at first, but the community decided against it, and the AK-47 was added back alongside the Ranch Rifle)
- MK46 (LMG found in a Military Crate)
- ARV (New Vehicle, later removed)
- Hot Dog Arcade Mode
- Raining Racers Arcade Mode
- Racer/Devil/Lamborghini in every game mode
Daybreak also promised a new map, "Outland" (Z3), however this would never be published on PC and only on PS4. It is also said that NantG gave all of the Season 4 files (which included old weapon models, UI, improved movement, etc.) yet Daybreak never published this and instead went the route of copying and pasting things from PS4. Z1BR would have its last update on the 19th of February 2020, which was removing the ARV from the game after an issue that caused players to prone and shoot from inside the vehicle.
Daybreak was bought by Enad Global 7 in December 2020 for $300 million. Four months later, in April 2021, EG7 published a community update video on YouTube. In this video, the CEO at the time (Robin Flodin) said that he had a team of developers actively looking at the H1Z1: KoTK code base, and they were looking to revert the game to the golden days. However, in August 2021, Ji Ham (the CEO of Daybreak) took over as the acting CEO of EG7. Since then, there has been no official updates on Z1BR. The North American server closed on the 16th of June 2023, and only Europe remains, with no official update on any social media.
Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in February 2015 and renamed Daybreak Game Company. On December 1, 2020, Daybreak Game Company entered into an agreement to be acquired by Enad Global 7.
ForgeLight is a proprietary MMO game engine developed and used by Daybreak Game Company. The engine has been used for Free Realms, Clone Wars Adventures, PlanetSide 2, Landmark, EverQuest Next, H1Z1: Just Survive, H1Z1: King of the Kill. The engine was nominated for the 2013 Game Developers Choice Awards Best Technology award.
Just Survive was a survival massively multiplayer online game by Daybreak Game Company for Windows. The game, originally known as H1Z1 and later as H1Z1: Just Survive, is set during a zombie apocalypse in a rural area of the United States. In it, players attempt to survive against the natural elements such as wolves and bears, hordes of zombies, and thousands of potentially hostile survivors through interaction, scavenging for resources, building shelters, and crafting. The game was released in early access in January 2015, selling over a million copies within two months, before being discontinued in October 2018.
Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix. The game was first released for PlayStation 4 and Windows in July 2015, with ports for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch being released later on. In June 2016, 505 Games began distributing a physical retail version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment taking over those duties by the end of 2017. Versions for macOS and Linux were also released in 2016, but support for their online services were dropped in 2020. The game went free-to-play in September 2020 when Epic Games took ownership.
In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. It is commonly applied to the ability for players using a game on a specific video game console to play alongside a player on a different hardware platform such as another console or a computer. A related concept is cross-save, where the player's progress in a game is stored in separate servers, and can be continued in the game but on a different hardware platform.
PUBG: Battlegrounds is a battle royale game developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. The game, which was inspired by the Japanese film Battle Royale (2000), is based on previous mods created by Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene for other games, and expanded into a standalone game under Greene's creative direction. It is the first game in the PUBG Universe series.
A battle royale game is an online multiplayer video game genre that blends last-man-standing gameplay with the survival, exploration and scavenging elements of a survival game. Battle royale games involve dozens to hundreds of players, who start with minimal equipment and then must eliminate all other opponents while avoiding being trapped outside of a shrinking "safe area", with the winner being the last player or team alive.
Brendan Greene, better known as PlayerUnknown, is an Irish video game developer. He is best known for his work on PUBG: Battlegrounds. He left active development on the game to form PUBG Special Projects and PlayerUnknown Productions in March 2019.
Fortnite Battle Royale is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed and published by Epic Games. It is a companion game to Fortnite: Save the World, a cooperative survival game with construction elements. It was initially released in early access on September 26, 2017, for macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, followed by ports for iOS, Nintendo Switch, and Android. Epic dropped the early access label for the game on June 29, 2020. Versions for the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 were released as launch titles in late 2020.
Richard Tyler Blevins, better known as Ninja, is an American online streamer, YouTuber and professional gamer. Blevins began streaming through participating in several esports teams in competitive play for Halo 3, and gradually picked up fame when he first started playing Fortnite Battle Royale in late 2017. Blevins' rise among mainstream media began in March 2018 when he played Fortnite together with Drake, Travis Scott and JuJu Smith-Schuster on stream, breaking a peak viewer count record on Twitch. Blevins has over 18 million followers on his Twitch channel, making it the most-followed Twitch channel as of March 2023.
Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV, better known as Dr Disrespect or The Doc, is an American online streamer. He had over 4 million followers on Twitch when he was active on the site, and became known for playing battle royale games such as Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite, H1Z1, and PUBG: Battlegrounds.
Realm Royale is a free-to-play third-person shooter battle royale game developed by Heroic Leap Games. The game features multiple character classes each with unique abilities. It is a spin-off of the hero shooter Paladins, where it originated as a game mode known as Paladins: Battlegrounds. The game was released for Microsoft Windows via Steam's early access program in June 2018, with versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One released two months later. Realm Royale entered open beta on PS4 and Xbox One on January 22, 2019. On May 24, 2019, the game entered closed beta on Nintendo Switch and went into open beta on June 20, 2019. On August 22, 2022, the game was relaunched and updated as Realm Royale Reforged, marking the first update to the game since February 2020.
Fortnite is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: Fortnite Battle Royale, a free-to-play battle royale game in which up to 100 players fight to be the last person standing; Fortnite: Save the World, a cooperative hybrid tower defense-shooter and survival game in which up to four players fight off zombie-like creatures and defend objects with traps and fortifications they can build; and Fortnite Creative, in which players are given complete freedom to create worlds and battle arenas.
In the video game industry, a battle pass or rewards track is a type of monetization approach that provides additional content for a game usually through a tiered system, rewarding the player with in-game items for playing the game and completing specific challenges. Inspired by the season pass ticketing system and originating with Dota 2 in 2013, the battle pass model gained more use as an alternative to subscription fees and loot boxes beginning in the late 2010s. Battle passes tend to offer free passes, which are available to all users, and premium passes that require annual or seasonal charges in exchange for enhanced items and cosmetics.
Super Animal Royale is an indie battle royale video game developed by Pixile Studios and published by Modus Games. The game features 64-player matches starring anthropomorphic animals who use a variety of weapons and firearms from a 2D overhead perspective and was built using the Unity game engine. An early version debuted on Steam Early Access on December 12, 2018, with a free-to-play demo version released the following month in January 2019. An Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S version appeared on Xbox Game Pass in game preview on June 1, 2021. The game left early access on Steam and was released for macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on August 26, 2021, and for Google Stadia on December 14, 2021.
Titanfall is a media franchise that mainly features first-person shooter games. The series was created by Respawn Entertainment and debuted on Xbox and Microsoft Windows; it has expanded to other consoles and platforms.
CRSED: F.O.A.D. is a battle royale multiplayer online shooter video game developed by Latvian studio Darkflow Studio and published by Gaijin Entertainment. It was previously known as Cuisine Royale. The game was officially launched on December 19, 2019, and was relaunched under a new name in December 2020. It is a free-to-play game with optional microtransactions.
PUBG Mobile is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed by LightSpeed & Quantum Studio, a division of Tencent Games. It is a mobile game adaptation of PUBG: Battlegrounds. It was initially released for Android and iOS on 19 March 2018.
BattlEye is a proprietary anti-cheat software designed to detect players that hack or abusively use exploits in an online game. It was initially released as a third-party anti-cheat for Battlefield Vietnam in 2004 and has since been officially implemented in numerous video games, primarily shooter games such as PUBG: Battlegrounds, Arma 3, Destiny 2, and DayZ.