DayZ News: Game Creator to Resign From Bohemia by End of 2014

The creator of DayZ has announced that he is leaving the game as well as developer Bohemia to start a new company in his native New Zealand that focuses on multiplayer titles.

Dean Hall, the man responsible for transforming DayZ from an unknown entity into a multi-million selling video game, will leave Bohemia by the end of 2014, Hall told Eurogamer at the Bohemia motion capture studio Prague, Czech Republic. Hall cited his lack of qualifications to head DayZ and Bohemia at this level and his personality as reasons the company will be better off without him in charge.

"I am a grenade," Hall said. "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 when the game was a mod of ARMA 2 and again when the game became a standalone title] - 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."

The video game creator also cited his desire to return to New Zealand as a chief reason for him to resign from his post. Originally the developer went to Prague on a month-long vacation from the New Zealand army, but ended up stayingfor several years due to the success of DayZ.

Hall has assured the DayZ community that he will not leave them in a lurch when he leaves. He'll only leave Bohemia when a solid plan is put into place concerning the future of the game, he said. In addition, Hall stated that he will not leave if Bohemia asks him to stay on and work out some kinks in the game in 2014, but after that the company and DayZ will be on their own.