DayZ standalone: 'We don't see our product at retail. We don't need money'

DayZ standalone creator Dean Hall has explained to VG247 why big console publishers should take a hard look at themselves going into the next-generation of consoles, and prepare to compete with open platforms and emerging innovation in the PC market.

As part of a VG247 interview, Hall explained to us why the rise of open platforms, free-to-play models, digital store fronts and subscription-based services like Spotify should be giving console manufacturers and publishers cause for concern.

"I don't really know enough about the technology behind it," Hall explained, "but I look at it occasionally. All I know is that there will be more rapid, huge change. I think that everyone - developers, publishers and manufacturers - need to take a good hard look and say, 'we want that process'."

"When we had a lot of publishers come to us with the DayZ project and say, 'we want to be involved', I had to say to them, 'well, what will you provide?' They said money, marketing, retail placement and all of that."

"We don't see our product at retail. We don't need money. So then we don't need marketing. People don't want to see 'DayZ: brought to you by x-brand.' These publishers are in danger of being irrelevant, but at the same time they can provide a lot of specialist assistance, or technology assistance."

"But I think everyone in the development side of it needs to take a good hard look, especially if Sony and Microsoft say, 'we want to focus on innovation'. If I were them I'd be looking at Steam going, 'woah'. Steam makes it oh-so-easy for developers."

When asked what digital store fronts on consoles need to do in order to achieve the same prominence as Steam, Hall replied, "I said this to Microsoft, 'why do you have to go out and get a publisher to publish on Xbox Live?' You have to use one of their existing publishers, and they never explained this to me in a way that makes sense."

"The only thing I can think of is that they don't want to p**s off their publishers. To me it's like the early days of digital music distribution, where they put digital music out there but you still had to buy the whole album.

"It's like...you're doing it wrong. You have to go into that space the right way, but I don't know too much about it to really have an informed opinion on it, but I know what I'd like to see."

Stay tuned for our full DayZ interview later today.