DayZ Standalone Confirmed

After weeks of speculation, rumour and frankly worldwide hoping, it has been confirmed that the ARMA II mod DayZ will be released as a standalone title. Earlier today creator Dean "Rocket" Hall announced on his development blog that the hugely successful zombie mod would indeed be redeveloped and released as a standalone. Hall stated that"This is the fairy-tale outcome for a mod that many would have said impossible four months ago,". This announcement is hardly a surprise for those who have been following the little mod that could, the surprise hit has recently reached 1 million players worldwide and a standalone release will undoubtedly spike interest. For those who don't know, DayZ is a zombie survival FPS game which places you in the fictious Eastern European region of Chernarus wherein you must scavenge your way to survival. Players must search for weapons to fend off the zombie horde not to mention trigger happy human players. On top of this, finding food and water is vital to survival, a seemingly simple idea that is left out of games far too often. The mod was developed by ex-soldier "Rocket" who got the idea for a survival based game from his own personal experience during a survival exercise in the jungles of Brunei wherein he had to forage for food and water in a relentless and unforgiving environment. Whilst the Zombie genre is a saturated market, DayZ has managed to find a niche of it's own that has captured the imaginations of gamers across the world. Whilst games like Left for Dead etc. allow gamers to play in a Zombie apocalypse setting, DayZ allows players to feel like they're living it. It really asks the question, what would you do to survive? As of yet there are no concrete details on the project, but it is likely that some of the rougher edges will be smoothed out and some new features added to entice current DayZ players to switch over from the mod. Hopefully the standalone title will lose none of it's sandbox, character permadeath features that what make it such a joy to play and will merely improve on the gaming experience. Interestingly DayZ will follow the Minecraft development model. Hall stated that "The project will follow the Minecraft development model; fast iterations with the community alpha available for a heavily discounted price" This development model undoubtedly served Minecraft well, and the implementation of this for DayZ should mean that those reluctant to purchase ARMA II won't have too long a wait before joining in with the Zombie fun. So, what are your thoughts on DayZ in general? If you are already playing will you cough up for the standalone title? Let us know in the comment box below.