It’s been ten years, but zombie survival sandbox 7 Days to Die is shambling out of Steam Early Access. But while it’s improved immensely over those years, it’s not good news for everyone. Those who’ve purchased the game on console won’t be getting an upgrade.
Launched in late 2013, 7 Days to Die is an open world game which pits you against the living dead. You blast away at living corpses, craft your own base; you get the picture. You can’t move for open-world survival games these days but back in 2013 they were a little less common. And now, developer The Fun Pimps has revealed the game will finally be exiting Steam Early Access in June.
But there’s a good way to go before 7 Days to Die becomes the game The Fun Pimps promised in its Kickstarter and, internally, this build is still known as Alpha 22. To its credit, the developer has revealed a roadmap for the remaining features, running up to Q4 2025. However, The Fun Pimps is raising the price of the game when 1.0 hits, which has had players raising their eyebrows.
“It’s not and never will be 1.0 in the minds of anyone who’s actually followed the development of the game for a while”, notes one Reddit user. “This feels like “we are running out of funding” more than anything. Calling it 1.0 with so many features still missing is pretty silly,” adds another. They might not be far from the truth.
7 Days to Die is rated Very Positive on Steam and many have commented that, alpha or not, they’ve had a blast. And, of course, those who’ve purchased the game already (there’s a sale happening pre 1.0) will get 1.0 for free. At least, PC owners will. Those who’ve purchased it on console are out of luck, with the ‘old’ version set to be delisted.
Related: The best games like Minecraft on Xbox.
The Fun Pimps has confirmed 7 Days to Die 1.0 is getting a console release in July. But this’ll be an all-new version. Telltale Games (the bankrupt one, not the new one) published the Early Access version of the game on PS4 and Xbox One. Shortly after, Telltale went into liquidation and the console release (Alpha 15) was left to stagnate.
And now? According to The Fun Pimps co-founder Richard Huenink, they’re working with Sony and Microsoft to give purchasers of that version a discount on the new console version; there’s no upgrade path. 7 Days to Die’s original console release will be removed from all platforms.
It’s not a great situation but we can’t place all the blame at The Fun Pimps’ door. Telltale Games/Publishing released the console version with nothing to indicate it was an Early Access product. We had a small amount of fun with it (you can read our review here) but that always struck us as a little suspect. Something similar happened with Stranded Deep, though developer Beam Team Games has continued to upgrade the console version.
So if you’re a fan of zombie sandbox games or open-world craft-em-ups in general, keep an eye out for 7 Days to Die this June. And if you’re after more flesh-eating fun, check out the best zombie games on PS5.
