New DayZ engine coming to PC "in a couple of weeks" according to lead producer

In its fifth year of early access, DayZ will take another step closer to completion when it launches with a new engine on PC “in a couple of weeks”.

"We're releasing DayZ on a new engine in a couple of weeks on PC, and it's gonna be coming to Game Preview on Xbox this year.” Eugen Harton, lead producer at Bohemia Interactive told PCGamesN at ID@Xbox.

“That's basically our aim. I would almost say it's a reboot of DayZ on PC."

A lot of DayZ’s lengthy development has centred around reworking the game’s engine to better suit its key mechanics.

The current implementation has a lot of unnecessary software bloat which makes it more difficult to add new things. Transitioning to a new engine could help to speed up development and regain some of the momentum DayZ has lost over the years.

The development team recently announced on Twitter that they’re performing maintenance on DayZ’s experimental game servers in preparation for stress tests of the latest 0.63 update.

This 0.63 build is supposed to introduce new zombies and animals, as well as new crafting and “completely revamped” melee and ranged combat with more manual control, combos and evasion.

DayZ found a lot of its early success with streamers on Twitch, where the open-ended exploration of its large map and knife-edge tension of its PvP elements struck a chord with viewers.

The popularity of DayZ on Twitch could be said to have laid some of the groundwork for current smash-hit games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds to rake in the massive audiences that they do.

But despite the similarities between the games, Harton believes that DayZ appeals to a different kind of player: "The hardcore simulation we're working on is not gonna compete with PUBG. It's not gonna compete with Fortnite."

"It might not become a mainstream thing, but that's not our customer. I'm okay with that. I know what game I'm making - I don't want to appeal to everybody."