The post-soviet country of Chernarus is struck by an unknown virus, turning the majority population into frenzied infected. Fighting over resources has bred a hostile mentality among survivors, driving what’s left of humanity to collapse. You are one of the few immune to the virus – how far will you go to survive?

DayZ is an unforgiving, authentic survival experience. Up to 60 survivors on a server engage in a completely unscripted gameplay scenario with no goals given, except for one: to survive as long as they can, by all means necessary. There are no superficial tips, way-points, built-in tutorials, or help given to players. Every decision matters, and every mistake can be lethal. If you die in DayZ, you lose all your character progress and start over, as the game features a permadeath concept.

With the need to manage your character's basic survival requirements and the looming danger of permadeath restarting your progress, DayZ is an exceptionally immersive game. Despite not directly featuring any storytelling mechanics, the post-apocalyptic open world of DayZ presents a unique online sandbox where every decision adds up, creating your own personal story. When all 60 players on a server engage in this completely unscripted survival scenario, the resulting emergent gameplay leads to intense player interactions — some action-packed and short, and some involving long, sophisticated roleplay with very real emotions that you remember long after.

DayZ will be available for Xbox One on March 27, 2019.

With a major game update scheduled for the launch day, DayZ is leaving Xbox Game Preview after 7 months of early access development and close cooperation with the community. The game still has post-launch updates scheduled, but the developers are ready to welcome fresh-spawned console survivors and challenge them to stay alive.

Bohemia Interactive premiered a cinematic CGI cinematic trailer that presents one example of the various stories DayZ can offer. Crossing ways with hostile bandits, overcoming injuries, plotting revenge and improvising during combat are all concepts very familiar to DayZ players. That, and a little bit of imagination — or willingness to fully immerse yourself into the world — will reward you with highly personal gameplay moments very close to this cinematic vision of DayZ.

DayZ is launching on Xbox One thanks to the massive help of the Xbox Game Preview community which shaped the game over the past months. Compared to the current January Game Preview build, the March 27 update will introduce things like an improved controls scheme, better inventory interactions, and general improvements in stability and performance — both on servers and in-game. This should lead to a much smoother overall experience, and should also allow new players to just enjoy the game without the early access hassle. To ensure that everyone starts fresh on launch day, all existing player characters and server persistence data from Game Preview will be wiped.

DayZ will continue in post-launch development with free platform updates scheduled to drop throughout 2019. These updates will further expand the content available in-game (new weapons and vehicles) and go more in-depth with some of the existing gameplay concepts. 

Until the launch update on March 27, DayZ is still available for its Game Preview price of $39.99 / £31.99 / €39.99, offering players a last chance to get the game for a lower price. After the launch, DayZ will be available for $49.99 / £41.99 / €49.99.

DayZ is also coming to PS4 later this year.

Key Features

• Detailed, authentic backdrop of Chernarus, an open world terrain featuring 230 square kilometres of hand-crafted environment based on real life locations
• Real emotional experience driven by the emergent interactions of 60 players on the server, all fighting for survival by any means necessary
• Environmental dangers including the infected, dynamic weather, and animal predators
• Wide variety of complex survival mechanics - from hunting and crafting, through sophisticated injury simulation, to transferable diseases
• Persistent servers with complex loot economy, and the ability to build improvised bases
• Visceral, authentic gun play and melee combat systems
• Smooth and reactive character controller utilizing a detailed animation system
• Rewarding and authentic experience of driving vehicles for travel and material transport