Bohemia Interactive today announced that DayZ – their open world, online survival game – has finally launched on Steam after 5 years of Early Access development. The 1.0 update released on Steam along with a Free Weekend, allowing everyone to download and play the full game for free until December 17 (19:00 CET).

Eugen Harton, DayZ’s Lead Producer at Bohemia Interactive, said:

“Letting everyone try the 1.0 update first hand without any barriers is really the best way to show the progress we’ve made over the Early Access development. DayZ is by no means a perfect game yet, but I’m confident that the effort we put into making it as smooth and enjoyable as possible paid off. At its core, DayZ still has all the gameplay mechanics that excited people when it first launched, but today it’s bigger, much more responsive, less clunky, and fun to play when you give it the time. And that’s probably my advice to anyone who wants to try the game – don’t give up the survival too early and use the Free Weekend as much as possible. DayZ can be hard, but since it’s built around emergent gameplay in an open world, it’s as fun to play as you (or other players around you) make it for yourself.”

On top of the Free Weekend, Bohemia Interactive decided to offer one last deal to get the game for an advantageous price – until December 17, the game is available for 15% OFF its Early Access price before landing on a final price tag of $44.99 / £31.99 / €37.99 on Monday.

DayZ’s Brand Manager, Martin ?ulák, added:

“We heard our community when they asked us to be conscious about the final pricing of DayZ – our originally announced final price was a bit higher, but we’ve now made sure that DayZ leaves Early Access with a fair price tag. We also heard the community when they wanted to let their friends know the best time to buy DayZ – and that time’s definitely now. For a game that has 88+ hours of average playtime per player, DayZ is a lot of bang for the buck this weekend.”

DayZ will continue receiving new content and features during post-launch development and support, and the development road-map for post 1.0 content will be established and presented at the beginning of next year.

Those interested can download and start playing DayZ via this link!