DayZ success should serve as a warning for publishers, Hall claims

Traditional publishers should be worried by the phenomenal success of DayZ, creator Dean Hall has warned.

It was announced earlier today that the game has now sold 1m copies in under a month – a fact Hall described to Polygon as a ‘shots fired’ moment for those in the traditional publishing model, and their investors”.

Added Hall: "Previously with the mod I think traditional publishers could write DayZ off as a kind of anomaly. It was possible to think that this would not fully translate to the retail game in terms of real sales.

"The concept of Kickstarter and early access games is not without problems, though, and I think we’ve yet to see the full extent of that. But what this says to me is that gamers crave real creativity in their games along with engagement in the process, and that the ‘indie’ way is not just restricted to small projects in fringe games.

It’s big and serious business now."