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.

Following the game’s release on both PC, Xbox One, and just recently PS4, development has continued on DayZ and today Bohemia Interactive is proud to announce the release of the 1.04 update across all platforms.

This version of the game adds some major features that players have been asking for, the biggest of which is private servers for the console versions.

Allowing players the sort of reliability and control needed to help brave the wilds of Chernarus, private servers are being provided by Nitrado. "It's a privilege to be the exclusive provider of DayZ private servers for Xbox and PS4" said Nitrado CEO Marcel Boeßendoerfer "We look forward to reaching a new level in our long-time partnership with Bohemia Interactive."

Other Patch Features:

• New weapons, grenades and throwing mechanic
• Improved medical game play
• Fixed key issues such as duping, server hoping, frame-rate issues

One things players should note though as they head back into DayZ, is that a patch of this size did require a complete server and character wipe, so you'll have to get back out there and scrabble out a whole new life among the infected.

To coincide with this patch, the game will also be launching physically on Xbox One and PS4 with the support of Sold Out Games. ‘We’re so excited to be bringing the PS4 & Xbox One versions of DayZ to physical retail following its phenomenal success digitally," said Garry Williams CEO Sold Out. "Survival games don’t get much more intense than this.”.

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

DayZ is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC for $49.99 USD.