More internal documents from Microsoft, filed as part of its ongoing court case against the US Federal Trade Commission, include a slide that claims developer Bohemia Interactive is working on a sequel to its hit zombie-themed survival game DayZ.
The document, as reported by PC Gamer, lists DayZ 2 as under development, along with two other previously revealed upcoming games, ArmA 4, and ArmA Reforger, the latter of which is already in early access on Steam. There"s no other info on DayZ 2 in the Microsoft document, and it"s possible Bohemia Interactive is not in active development on the game since that document was first created.
The original DayZ started out as a mod for Arma II by its created Dean Hall. However, the mod"s popularity in 2012 caused sales of the military shooter to spike. A stand-alone version of the mod was released in early access on Steam in 2013 and finally left early access five years later in 2018.
DayZ remains one of the top 25 most played games on Steam right now in terms of concurrent users with over 40,000 players at once currently online. Versions of the game are also available for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.
Ironically, a mod for the game, DayZ: Battle Royale, helped in its popularity. It was created by Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene and launched in 2013. The mod was among the first in the growing Battle Royale genre and helped to spawn games like rival H1Z1 and PUBG (also both led by Green), which led to later games like Fortnite"s Battle Royale mode, Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, and more.
While a release for DayZ 2 might be years away, it"s likely to be a huge event for PC gamers who have helped to keep the original game highly popular for over a decade.