Update: John Smedley of Daybreak has given Gameranx a statement regarding the subscription model.
Daybreak has outlined plans that will essentially shift H1Z1 to a partial subscription model.
It all hinges around Battle Royale, a last man standing game mode essentially imported by developer PLAYERUNKNOWN from Arma 3 to H1Z1. In the H1Z1 version, you are paradropped into a world where you have a limited time period to roam the world and defeat everyone else, before you die of course. You can collect weapons and loot, and if you’re lucky, you can intercept care packages, but after 20 minutes, the playable area starts shrinking via a toxic gas cloud, until only one is left.
Battle Royale has proven popular the last two months that Daybreak has offered it via Early Access, and much like when they started paid airdrops, they are announcing paid access for the mode.
Currently, access to Battle Royale requires you farm for event tickets. Previously, the best way to get the tickets was to qualify in the top 30% of players in any given match. However, you now have to win first place to get a ticket–making it next to impossible for players to acquire tickets and experience Battle Royale mode for free, in practical terms. You will now be able to buy a $6.99 monthly pass that gives you 30 days calendar access to Battle Royale, during which time the tickets will not be consumable.
Daybreak is also changing around rewards, in such a way that you should eventually run across everything the game offers, by signing up for the monthly pass. You can read the details of these changes here.
You may have already guessed that fans are not taking to the news too well. It seems the crux of their complaints about this move is that they have not yet fixed the main game mode, they went for monetization like this too early in the game, and of course, they are adapting the system to incentivize playing Battle Royale, to the detriment of the main game.
There are players willing to accept the changes as well, as some say they suspected the game was going in this direction anyway. Still, it’s a dramatic action that Daybreak may have taken too early.
The changes take away from Twitch streamers' capability to stream Battle Royale matches at a whim, killing immediate accessibility of the game.
What do you think of this change? Would you be willing to pay for Battle Royale on top of H1Z1’s Early Access fee? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
