War Z creator apologises to players

One of the creators behind War Z, a zombie survival MMO that received a wave of criticism before being locked on Steam, has apologised to its players.

Sales of the zombie MMO were halted and some buyers refunded in December, after claims of “misleading advertising”, forum censorship and controversial microtransactions erupted within a week of its release on Steam.

War Z’s executive producer Sergey Titov has confessed that the game’s developer, Hammerpoint Interactive, failed to suitably communicate with players. He believes this was the cause of much of the negative feedback his game has received.

“I became arrogant and blinded by the early success and quick growth of The War Z, our increasing number of players, numbers we were getting from surveys, etc., and I chose not to notice the concerns and questions raised by these members of the game community as well as others,” he wrote in an open letter.

“This failure is entirely on my shoulders and if anything I owe thanks to that vocal minority and admit that I should have paid attention sooner. I chose instead to concentrate on the bigger picture – my dream of turning The War Z from being a game developed by a small indie team into a large online venture, instead of addressing small things first and staying focused on the game issues.

“At the end my arrogance led us to the moment, when all those small things finally caught up and created a ‘perfect storm’ that affected all of our community members. For that I’m truly sorry and apologize to all of our community as well as the larger PC gaming community that is not yet playing The War Z.”

Titov was lambasted for his reaction to the allegations of false advertising. He had previously apologised to users who he said “misread” the game’s product page on Steam on the games forums. In his latest post he appears to recognise his actions.

“I do not take this situation lightly, and last week events were especially humbling for me,” he wrote. “I’ve experienced a range of emotions, most of which centred on regret for not having addressed some of the issues differently than we did, but we can’t change the past.”

Concluding his lengthy reflection, Titov asks gamers to give The War Z a second chance.

“I know that to some people my words won’t matter much. I understand that. I hope that will change as we move forward and deliver the features that our players have been waiting for. I can promise you that from now on things will be much more transparent, and we’ll provide better communication and engage our community to discuss upcoming features way before they appear in the game.

“I do believe that we aren’t even close to uncovering the true potential for The War Z, and I hope that in the coming year, we’ll be able to regain trust from people who were alienated by our actions and we’ll be able to move forward and grow the game together.”