Why Did Once Popular Shooter H1Z1 Shut Down? A Post-Mortem Analysis
As an avid gamer who has been playing and creating content around battle royale titles since the early days, the shutdown of H1Z1 hit close to home. H1Z1 was arguably the first standalone battle royale game that helped kickstart and popularize the genre as we know it today. But a variety of factors ultimately led to its premature demise after failing to live up to its early promise and potential.
In this post I‘ll analyze the various missteps, market forces, and questionable decisions that contributed to H1Z1‘s downfall after its stint at the top. There‘s no one smoking gun that killed H1Z1 – rather, its death was a culmination of self-inflicted wounds and external pressures.
The Early Glory Days
It‘s easy to forget now, but when H1Z1 first launched in Early Access back in 2015, it was a trailblazing title and massive hit. PlayerUnknown himself was inspired by the early H1Z1 development streams when conceptualizing PUBG.
As one of the first standalone, non-mod battle royale experiences, H1Z1 captured lightning in a bottle and filled an opening in the market. Streamers like Summit1G regularly streamed it for tens of thousands of viewers. H1Z1 successfully rode this first wave of mainstream BR hype to the top of the charts on Steam and Twitch.
However, it became clear over time that Daybreak Game Company was not adequately prepared infrastructure and resource-wise to handle H1Z1‘s exponentially growing player base. Server lag, instability, rampant cheating and lengthy queue times soon began plaguing the experience. Unforced errors right out the gate began testing player goodwill.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Jan 2015 | H1Z1 launches in Steam Early Access |
| Aug 2015 | Hits over 1 million sales |
| July 2016 | Splits into Just Survive and King of the Kill |
The Competition Heats Up
Epic Games took notice of what Daybreak had tapped into with H1Z1 and quickly pivoted their paid PVE title Fortnite into a free-to-play battle royale release by September 2017. Fortnite may have copied the BR rule set, but its vibrant art style, satisfying gunplay and generous free battle pass system was perfectly catered to casual appeal.
Whereas H1Z1 took a comparatively drab and hardcore survival focus. Fortnite became an instant phenomenon from kids to pro gamers, absorbing more and more of the BR audience.
PUBG, the game actually created by Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene entered the scene in 2017 as well. The more grounded and military simulation shooting style secured PUBG‘s popularity especially with streamers and esports teams early on.
By mid 2017 the tides had started to turn away from Daybreak‘s former dominance of the nascent genre. H1Z1 was bleeding players and relevancy to the competition pouring hundreds of millions more dollars into development.
Identity Crisis and Decline
In a desperate bid to halt plummeting players counts, Daybreak made the decision to split H1Z1 into two seperate games – H1Z1: Just Survive and H1Z1: King of the Kill in mid 2016. The fracturing of what community remained only accelerated the loss of interest in either title. Just Survive catered to PVE survival fans, while King of the Hill doubled down on last man standing PVP. There was confusion over which version players owned with little incentive to stick around.
Renaming King of the Hill to simply "H1Z1" and again to "Z1 Battle Royale" further obscured and diluted any lasting brand identity. The game lacked clarity of vision as developers pivoted from project to project trying to recapture the magic. ignorance of core issues and lack of meaningful updates beyond cosmetics and loot box gambling continued turning away their veteran playerbase.
Corporate mismanagement from parent group Columbus Nova strangled any resources H1Z1 could leverage to reinvent itself like competitors. In 2018 after player populations dropped below profitable sustainability thresholds, Daybreak made the decision to finally pull the plug on all their battle royale titles.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Aug 2017 | King of the Kill renamed back to just H1Z1 |
| Feb 2018 | Hits under 1000 average players on Steam |
| April 2018 | Re-branded again as Z1 Battle Royale |
| Oct 2018 | Servers shut down permanently |
Key Takeaways from the Demise of H1Z1
In my opinion as an industry analyst, these are the biggest factors which contributed to the precipitous fall of H1Z1:
Market Saturation
- Hundreds of Battleroyale clones flooded the market
- Difficult to stand out in a overcrowded genre
Stagnation & Lack of Innovation
- Did not iterate gameplay & systems
- Unreal Engine upgrade failed
- Fell behind rivals on features
Confusing Branding & Identity
- Splitting community with Just Survive
- Rebranding from H1Z1 to King of the Kill to Z1
Incompetent Management
- Columbus Nova leadership out of touch
- Conflicting priorities between execs, devs, players
Loss of Community Goodwill
- Catered to top streamers not average fans
- Ignored player complaints and feedback
Failure to Capture Casual Appeal
- Learning curve too demanding for casual gamers
- Lacked stylistic charm and personality
In my opinion, H1Z1 in many ways was ahead of its time yet also failed to live up to its full potential once the rest of the industry caught up. Much like popular streamer Ninja reflected, perhaps if H1Z1 fixed lingering issues earlier and positioned themselves better, they could have become the apex predator of battle royale gaming for years.
But between market forces beyond their control and self-inflicted missteps, the window for them to establish dominance slipped away faster than anyone anticipated. H1Z1 made history as an influential BR pioneer, but sadly could not survive the genre blowing up in scope beyond their scale.
Let me know your thoughts on the lessons developers and publishers can take away from the demise of H1Z1 after so much early promise. What could they have done differently? And is there hope for some kind of revival someday?
