H1Z1 goes free-to-play just one week after exiting Steam Early Access

[Shawn Knight]

H1Z1 last week finally reached “finished game” status after being stuck in Steam Early Access for more than three years. Now, the battle royale game from developer and publisher Daybreak Game Company is going free-to-play.

Daybreak in announcing the news said the flip was switched to free mode at 10 a.m. Pacific today. That’s great news for newcomers but what about people that paid the game’s full $19.99 asking price?

H1Z1 General Manager Anthony Castoro said refunds will be provided by Steam in accordance with their refund policy. Only those who purchased within the past 14 days and haven’t played the game for more than two hours will get a refund.

It’s not a total loss, however, as everyone else will receive the “H1Z1 Appreciation Pack” valued between $30 and $50. Contents include a Gasrunner Hoodie, a Bloom Survivor T-shirt, a Splinter Camo ARV, 10 Victory Crates and 10,000 Skulls. Daybreak has also added Bronze, Silver and Limited Edition Gold Battle Royale packs for the free-to-play launch.

Castoro further announced they have gathered the 15 esports teams that will compete in the inaugural season of the H1Z1 Pro League. First announced in October, the NASCAR-style season will play out at Caesars Entertainment Studio in Las Vegas and be broadcast exclusively on Facebook.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/73632-h1z1-goes-free-play-one-week-after-exiting.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Why would anybody spend money on such a horrible game? H1Z1 was horrible before the name change, horrible before they scrubbed reviews, and its horrible now.

 

[Bubbajim]

It’s not a total loss, however, as everyone else will receive the “H1Z1 Appreciation Pack” valued between $30 and $50. Contents include a Gasrunner Hoodie, a Bloom Survivor T-shirt, a Splinter Camo ARV, 10 Victory Crates and 10,000 Skulls. Daybreak has also added Bronze, Silver and Limited Edition Gold Battle Royale packs for the free-to-play launch.

I love this digital content being labelled as "valued between $30 and $50". They could literally "value" it at any price as it's digital 'goods' that can't be resold or used in any other way than in-game. Of course, with the game having sold for $20 they were never going to say, "We'll give you $5 worth of assets we'd already made!"

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

Considering their hideous reputation for trolls, nope. I didn't buy it years ago for that reason and definitely won't now.

 

[kapital98]

Why would anybody spend money on such a horrible game? H1Z1 was horrible before the name change, horrible before they scrubbed reviews, and its horrible now.

The success of PUBG has made people search for anything remotely related. H1Z1 is a clear predecessor and they are, in a weird way, making money because of the company that took their best ideas.

 

[PcePce]

H1Z1 was always planned to be free-to-play upon "official" release. The problem isn't that people paid money for the alpha/beta/whatever-they-called it, but that it went through a tortuous, years-long process of slow development, broken promises, unwanted changes, poor communication with the community, massive server issues, and a general inability to keep up with newer competition.

Also, calling H1Z1 an e-sport is a joke they've been trying to tell people for years. Good luck with that.