Bohemia Interactive shuts down DayZ studio

Original story: DayZ creator Bohemia Interactive has closed its development studio in Bratislava.

It's not clear how many people have been affected by this closure. GamesIndustry.biz has contacted Bohemia for comment.

The studio was responsible for the original work on the popular zombie multiplayer game, which began as a mod for military shooter Arma 2 and eventually span out into its own title.

The closure was announced via Twitter, and described as a "mutual decision between management and studio leads."

It is not clear whether the team was still working on DayZ, but Bohemia has assured that the shutdown "won't affect the future development" of the game.

The company reiterated this in a tweet via the game's official account, which clarified "DayZ development isn't closed."

DayZ will apparently continue to receive updates throughout the year "with longer games between them," as laid out in a roadmap published to the game's website back in January.

Update: Bohemia Interactive has confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that over 40 employees were affected by the closure of the Bratislava studio.

Some of the studio leads, Bohemia said, had already formed Nine Rock Games along with several former team members.

All remaining employees were offered positions in other studios around the world, if they were willing to relocate.

"The most important thing to say in this matter is that it was a mutual decision between Bohemia Interactive and Bohemia Interactive Slovakia leadership," said a Bohemia Interactive representative.

"The decision was made at the beginning of this year with the plan to close the studio by the end of the March. We had to part ways because it makes sense for everyone."

Additionally, Bohemia confirmed that the Bratislava studio had been gradually transitioning off assisting with DayZ throughout early 2019 and late 2020, but the core development team for the game remained in Prague.

Additional reporting by Rebekah Valentine