After its period of Early Access development for several years and its recent release on PC, the popular battle royale title H1Z1 is making a new move to cast a wider net and bring in a larger playerbase as it will now be open to the masses in a free-to-play format.
Developer and publisher Daybreak Game Company has announced that as of today, H1Z1 will now be available as a free-to-play title for users on PC, allowing anyone to download the title and hop into the action, whether its battle royale or the game’s recently-released “Auto Royale” mode.
While the game is now free-to-play, users that purchased the game within the past two weeks and played less than two hours are eligible for a refund through Steam’s customer service, given the proximity of the game going free-to-play. For other players, however, that have been playing the title since its Early Access days, an H1Z1 “Appreciation Pack” will automatically be delivered to players with the following items:
- Gasrunner Hoodie
- Bloom Survivor T-Shirt
- Splinter Camo ARV
- 10 Victory Crates
- 10,000 Skulls
Several new DLC packs will also be available for the game through Steam as additional purchases ranging in price from $19.99 to $99.99. The packs, called the “Bronze,” “Silver” and “Gold LIMITED EDITION” Battle Royale Packs, each feature a variety of additional in-game items such as skins, weapons, and crates for players to open and collect other items.
On top of the game’s Free-to-Play transition, Daybreak also announced that the H1ZI Pro League will officially begin on April 21st, 2018 at the H1PL Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Specifically, the League will comprise of 15 eSports teams competing in the Caesars Entertainment Studio starting in April over two 10-week periods to win the tournament.
Those looking to watch the matches unfold over the tournament period will be able to stream the matches from the League’s official Facebook page, alongside “exclusive content” and “new ways to build communities around competitive gaming.”
H1Z1 is available now on PC, and is also planned to release in the future on PS4 and Xbox One. For a closer look at the game’s free-to-play experience, you can check out the trailer below: