H1Z1 developer Sony Online Entertainment has started internal discussions concerning the zombie sandbox game’s monetization model. Company president John Smedley has posted minutes of the first meeting online, stressing that while wearable can be bought in-game, several key items cannot.
In a new Reddit update, Smedley revealed, “We will be selling wearables. We felt like this will be a good, fair revenue generator. However – we recognize how important finding wearables in the world is so you’ll be able to find and craft a lot of stuff. We agree that’s something important. We’ve also come up with a pretty awesome idea to let players who kill other players loot stuff.
“So if a player has a black ski mask and gets killed by another player, that player can wear the ski mask for a few deaths (we have durability in the game. Station Cash wearables won’t degrade at all but when you loot something.. it will degrade. Please note the original player always keeps their SC purchased wearables. This gives the great feeling of whacking some unsuspecting fool who decided to bring a knife to a gun fight.”
Smedley stressed that H1Z1 will not offer guns, ammo, food, water or boosters in the game store, and added that, “the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that.”
However, players will be able to buy emote packs and character slots. Smedley revealed that the H1Z1 sandbox will also include crates that hold random store items for those lucky enough to find them first. “You can find crates sometimes in game,” he explained. “They’re filled with random cool stuff from the store. We’re considering letting you see what’s in them before you buy a key (ala Dota 2.). This idea isn’t fully locked yet.”
