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H1Z1 shambles onto Steam Early Access on January 15

Sony Online Entertainment's entry into the zombie surival world begins next month.

Ozzie Mejia

December 8, 2014 3:33 PM

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Just like the last few years, 2015 will be the year of the zombie. More specifically, it'll be Sony Online Entertainment's official entry into the zombie survival genre. H1Z1 now has an official date for Steam Early Access, hitting a playable state on January 15.

"After a lot of hard work, we've decided to make the release date January 15th, 2015," SOE president John Smedley said on Reddit. "This gives us just enough time to polish what we have and put out something we'll be proud of and hopefully you'll be excited to play. Why did it take longer than we originally thought? It's a fair question. The simple answer is once we saw what we could have had earlier it wasn't good enough and we wanted to put something out that we would be proud of. What you'll be playing January 15th is a really fun game, but it's early. It's everything Early Access should be - a fun and compelling game that isn't finished. Our goal is to have you help us finish it and have it be a game we can build a large community in over time."

The basic SKU will run for $19.99, while a more premium version will be announced at a later date. Smedley urges players expecting a finished product to hold off on purchasing H1Z1, since it will still need the kind of polish and feedback that only an Early Access period can provide.

Those looking to learn more about H1Z1 can jump into the official Twitch channel and hear from the development team.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?