Dean Hall to leave Bohemia and DayZ development

The creator of one of modern gaming’s biggest and most unlikely successes is to leave his baby in the hands of its new owners.

Eurogamer reports that Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall intends to quit Bohemia by the end of the year, leaving DayZ in the hands of the studio’s team.

"I am a grenade," he said. "I have a specific use. I’m really good at risk-taking and making other people take risks, I’ve always been good at that in my life. Like you say, maybe I’ve got the gift of the gab, so I can talk, I can explain something, I can talk people up to the ledge and get them to jump off it.

"That’s what I did with DayZ. I’ve done it twice now – two new code teams have separately done it. But eventually, that’s the bad person to have. Eventually, you don’t want the guy telling you to go over the top and get through. So at some point I’ll be a disaster for the project, at least in a leadership role.”

"And it’s kind of like cooking in someone else’s kitchen: I don’t want to be constantly telling Bohemia that this is how I do it and this is the way we do it."

He added that he’ll remain at the Arma studio for as long as he is needed”, and that he had never planned for a long stint at the developer.

About MCV Staff

Check Also

jam [Industry news] 70 games release exclusive content as Green Game Jam 2026 goes live globally

[Industry news] 70 games release exclusive content as Green Game Jam 2026 goes live globally

Playing for the Planet today announced the official go live launch of the 2026 Green Game Jam, with 70 participating games beginning to roll out new in-game environmental activations to players worldwide. The games are launching exclusive coral reef and rainforest themed content, events and challenges to celebrate World Environment Day, with yet more titles joining the festivities in September of this year making this year’s Green Game Jam the biggest to date!