H1Z1's early access date is January 15, 2015, according to John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment,

"Is it going to be a finished game? Absolutely not. If that's what you're expecting, DO NOT BUY EARLY ACCESS. The goal here is to let you in early and help us mold it into a game you want to be a part of for quite a long time."

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"Is H1Z1 going to be better than Day Z day 1? No it won't. We'll get asked that question a lot and I wanted to be up front about it. We're not as feature rich and they have a lot of really cool stuff we just don't have yet. That being said, we're also a different game. We're an MMO and our goals are to create a large scale world that gives you the incredible feeling of being a survivor in a zombie apocalypse."

In a post on Reddit , Smedley said that date gives the development team enough time polish H1Z1 before it's in players' hands. He also makes it very clear that H1Z1 is not a finished game, and warns players against buying it if they're expecting a final, finished experience:Smedley adds that H1Z1 will not be "better" than Day Z on day one. He clarifies his position with this statement:You will not be able to buy performance enhancing items, like guns, ammo, food, water, or other boosters. Instead, you'll be able to buy "wearable items," in addition to the ones that are craftable in the game.

Brian is an associate editor at IGN. He plays too much Dota 2. You can follow him @albinoalbert on Twitter