Death in The War Z will result in loss of cash-bought items

The developers of The War Z have revealed a key gameplay feature for its upcoming ‘Not DayZ’ survival horror title.

The War Z will, like its close rival DayZ, rob players of all of their progress when they die. But it also plans to go a stage further, thanks to the planned introduction of a real-money item shop, which as of yet has not been introduced to DayZ.

Yes, you’ll lose what you have in your backpack when you die – both in Normal and Hardcore modes,” Hammerpoint Interactive PR rep Alex Josef told GamingBlend.

And yes, if you bought something using real money, you’ll lose that item as well. This is a price you’ll have to pay.

We’ve discussed that a lot and at the end decided that this will provide a pretty good incentive for players to either be extra cautious while playing, or just not spend too much money in the game and, instead, try to procure all items by finding them in the game world.”

It’s interesting to see how this apparent conflict works out. On the one hand, the developers seem to be encouraging players to work for their rewards rather than simply buy their way out of trouble.

But on the other hand, a real-money shop will be a moneymaking exercise for the studio. Does it honestly want to discourage sales? Time will tell.