Those following Dean “Rocket” Hall’s reddit and twitter activities during the last few months foresaw what is now confirmed – Dean Hall plans to leave Bohemia Interactive behind him, and DayZ with it. This comes as a shocker for many others though, and many people will no doubt to start questioning the future of DayZ, which as successful as it may be, is still in an early alpha stage and needs proper guidance for a long, long time. Rocket hinted at his intentions in a recent AMA on reddit, but it was in an exclusive interview with Eurogamer that the lead developer of DayZ made his intentions brutally clear.
For the most part, the interview shows a Rocket that feels homesick. Dean Hall plans to start his own studio back in his home country of New Zealand. He wants to work on new projects and wants to keep trying to create the perfect multiplayer experience, something that he doesn’t see in DayZ’s future. “I feel like DayZ is a fundamentally flawed concept and I’ve always recognised that. It’s not the perfect game; it’s not the multiplayer experience, and it never can be, with the absolute spark that I want in it.” he stated.
“I have a specific use. I’m really good at risk-taking and making other people take risks, I’ve always been good at that in my life. Like you say, maybe I’ve got the gift of the gab, so I can talk, I can explain something, I can talk people up to the ledge and get them to jump off it. That’s what I did with DayZ; I’ve done it twice now [once with the mod, again with the standalone] – two new code teams have separately done it. But eventually, that’s the bad person to have. Eventually, you don’t want the guy telling you to go over the top and get through. So at some point I’ll be a disaster for the project, at least in a leadership role.” is how Dean Hall backed up his decision.
Overall, it’s unclear when exactly Rocket will depart from Bohemia Interactive, leaving DayZ in other hands. His “by the end of the year” statement can be interpreted in many ways. The fact is, the community and fans are surely going to feel cheated. I’m not pessimistic enough to believe that DayZ will simply fail because of Rocket’s departure, but the team losing the creative director and project leader is a huge hit. By all accounts, DayZ’s beta was scheduled for the end of the year. This basically means Rocket will leave an unfinished product behind. Whether or not the team will manage to carry on successfully following his departure is not the question or the issue. The issue is centered on a lack of morality and ethics on behalf of Dean, and as much as I am a fan of his work, I cannot help thinking about the profits DayZ brought in and how this move feels like a hit-and-run.
What do you guys think? Is DayZ doomed, or was it doomed to begin with? Or will the remaining developers manage well enough without the leadership of Rocket?