H1Z1 enters Early Access on January 15

Sony Online Entertainment has been teasing for quite a while the Steam Early Access date for its anticipated post-apocalyptic zombie survival MMO, H1Z1. Today, the studio finally revealed when eager players will be able to play it and the price: January 15, 2015 and $19.99 USD for the basic version – a more expensive package will be announced shortly and will provide “things like access to some of our different game mode servers (which you can get access to by purchasing tickets or earning them as well) and other specifics.”

SOE President John Smedley said more on Reddit about the Early Access stage, including why it took longer than initially expected:

“The simple answer is once we saw what we could have had earlier it wasn't good enough and we wanted to put something out that we would be proud of. What you'll be playing January 15th is a really fun game, but it's early. It's everything Early Access should be – a fun and compelling game that isn't finished. Our goal is to have you help us finish it and have it be a game we can build a large community in over time.”

Smedley admits that H1Z1 won't be better than DayZ from the beginning because that game is feature rich and SOE is still building on its game, a “different game”.