DayZ creator returns home to launch his own studio: RocketWerkz

Newsbrief: DayZ creator Dean Hall has put out the call for developers to join him at his nascent New Zealand studio RocketWerkz. Hall, a New Zealand native, has been planning this for some time; early this year he spoke publicly about his intentions to quit his post at ArmA developer Bohemia Interactive (which is based in Prague) and return home to start his own venture. At the time, Hall expressed interest in continuing to develop online multiplayer games in the vein of DayZ, the game based on an ArmA II mod that proved so popular Bohemia hired its creator -- Hall -- and put him to work building a standalone version. Bohemia released it on Steam's Early Access service late last year and sold over a million copies in a month, a level of success which Hall saw as a mandate to "make all the crazy games I ever wanted."