Did Sony Online Entertainment steal DayZ’s idea with H1Z1?

I have to admit, I was a little irked when I heard about the announcement of Sony’s H1Z1. As a fan, I was excited to hear that DayZ’s developers had met with Sony in the hopes of bringing the zombie MMO to a console once the PC version was done. It was back in April of last year, ironically, that it was first reported that DayZ’s Dean Hall was in talks with Sony.

“It appears to be the kind of game that Sony are interested in, I think we just have to wait and see. We’ve talked and met with Sony, and they’re very – you know, they’re obviously interested.”

Apparently not interested enough. Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedly recently partook in a Reddit AMA and addressed the obvious similarities between the two titles:

“Not going to give some politically correct dodgy b.s. answer. [H1Z1] is a survival in a Zombie Apocalypse game. So is Day Z. [Bohemia] have made a brilliant game (first I might add). They have a great vision for it and can count myself and most of the people on our team as fans and contributors.”

“So this is our take on the Zombie Apocalypse with a lot of friends and hopefully some great enemies both living and dead. We’re proud to be upfront and say we love Day Z and the job they’ve done and we hope they enjoy what we make too.”

There are some small differences between the games, but for the most part they are generally the same thing. I just find it disheartening that an upstart company can come up with a unique idea and have it taken and mass produced by a larger company. Make no mistakes about, it happens all the time outside of the gaming industry. It’s just the drawback of doing “good business.”

If that’s the case, then the developers of The Stomping Land better not show their game to Sony before they take their dinosaur hunting MMO and make it their own.

Source: PCGamesN