In a canned statement, Daybreak chief publishing officer Laura Naviaux explained that H1Z1 was the No. Join gaming leaders live this October 25-26 in San Francisco to examine the next big opportunities within the gaming industry. next month with two distinct games that gamers can buy separate or together in a special edition bundle for more money. Nintendo has even started doing that with another franchise, Fire Emblem, which debuts in the U.S.
This is something we’ve seen in the past from games like Pokémon, which sells two versions of each new release. Not everyone will do that, but some will - and that’ll boost the ARPU. Going forward, they’ll have to pay $40 if they want both. Consumers previously could have purchased both these modes for $20. This is likely also an attempt to increase the ARPU by introducing two products. King of the Kill, however, leaves Early Access and launches on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One some time this summer.Īdditionally, by splitting the game up into two, Daybreak is spreading the risk of development across multiple genres and player types, and it is building and exposing its hottest brand to more people. Both games debut as standalone products on the Steam digital-distribution store’s Early Access portal for unfinished games starting February 17 for $20 each (you get both automatically if you already own the game). This split is also similar to a common strategy in gaming where publishers increase their revenue - including average revenue per user (ARPU) - for a product by splitting it into two versions.įollowing this separation, Daybreak now has two individual development teams working on their own projects. With these two games, the publisher can now go after both the $3.4 billion massively multiplayer online market (that doesn’t have a monthly subscription) with Just Survive as well as the online shooter genre that is home to games like publisher Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Digital Extreme’s Warframe, and Smilegate’s CrossFire (which makes $1B annually). The second is H1Z1: King of the Kill, and it will focus solely on H1Z1’s competitive multiplayer mode. The original game is now known as H1Z1: Just Survive. H1Z1, Daybreak’s open-world online zombie survival game that is still in development, is splitting up into two discrete games. Now, publisher Daybreak is finding that something similar is true of zombie survival games. The thing about a zombie virus is that it spreads so fast you can’t contain it. Interested in learning what's next for the gaming industry? Join gaming executives to discuss emerging parts of the industry this October at GamesBeat Summit Next.