H1Z1 has changed its name once again

H1Z1 is a great example of troubled development. The project started as a zombie survival MMO when the genre was at the peak of its popularity, and later got a Battle Royale mode called King of the Kill with the help of Brendan Greene. It all happened before he developed PUBG, and H1Z1 has been rolling down the hill since.

Developers tried too hard to keep up with PUBG’s growing popularity, which led to declining numbers in overall stats of H1Z1. The survival standalone release of H1Z1: Just Survive fell victim to shifted priorities, and earlier this year developers from Daybreak had to give the whole brand away to be supported by the other studio called NantG. These new developers released a huge update a couple of days ago, which is intended to bring H1Z1 back to its roots gameplay-wise. The game has changed its name (which happened several times in the past) and is now titled Z1 Battle Royale – or simply Z1BR. The update received a big name The Return of the King, and it was done deliberately. Z1BR brings back a lot of fan-favourite features and mechanics from the older H1Z1: King of the Kill version line gun handling and combat mechanics.

You can learn all the details in a dedicated patch note. It is worth noting that these changes affected the PC version only, while the PS4 version keeps its own non-related existence. Regarding the fate of Just Survive – the survival MMO part of H1Z1 family of games – there’s nothing to be announced at the moment.