Server woes plague Sony’s H1Z1 launch

Sony Online Entertainment’s online zombie game H1Z1 is the latest high profile title to be plagued by a number of server and technical problems at launch.

Issues reported by players of the Steam Early Access title included trouble with logging in, a lack of active servers and other problems such no voice chat and lag during gameplay.

A series of tweets suggested developers were working around the clock and out of hours to fix the game’s early problems.

team is headed home.. only 2 hours of sleep in the last 30 or so. and we need fresh eyes and clear heads to do a lot of work tomorrow.

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) January 16, 2015

thanks for your patience. Believe me we won't sleep till this is fixed.

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) January 16, 2015

Players have also been up in arms by suggestions that the game is ‘pay-to-win’, with users able to pay for air-drops to gain supplies such as weapons and ammo.

Responding on Reddit thread, SOE president John Smedley said players who bought early on could apply for limited-time refunds if they were unhappy with their experience.

Though in Early Access with issues arguably expected to some degree, H1Z1 is the latest in a string of online games during the last few years to experience launch problems. Other notable examples include Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Driveclub and SimCity.