Indie developers “The Fun Pimps” seem to be done playing games, as they’ve announced that their open-world survival crafting game “7 Days to Die” will officially launch in June, with releases for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles following in July.
“7 Days to Die,” commonly abbreviated as “7D2D,” has garnered quite a reputation. Originally released on Steam as an early access title in 2013, its development progress has significantly slowed in recent years.
The latest update, “Alpha 21,” was released in June 2023, with the preceding update, “Alpha 20,” launching in November 2021.
Due to its nature as an open-world zombie survival crafting game, “7 Days to Die” found immediate success upon its release in December 2013, despite being in early access. However, its popularity surged in 2020 thanks to content creators, and it has since maintained a robust player base of over 20,000 concurrent players, despite the slowed development.
As an early access title, the game has been consistently available for purchase on Valve’s Steam store for $25 USD, often discounted during seasonal sales to as low as $6. With the recent announcement by The Fun Pimps, a “Last Chance Sale” is scheduled to take place on Steam from April 22nd to April 29th, offering a 76% discount.
After this last chance sale, the game will surge in price to $45.
A video titled “Alpha Exodus: The Road to 1.0,” featuring Richard Huenink, co-founder of The Fun Pimps, has premiered on YouTube.
Since its initial early access release in 2013, the game has seen over 20 major updates, spanning a development period of nearly 12 years. Finally, preparations for the official release have been announced as complete.
With progress deemed satisfactory by The Fun Pimps, including quality improvements in art and optimization for both PC and consoles, the game is scheduled for an official launch in June with its 22nd Alpha update, followed by international releases for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles in July.
It’s obvious that existing game owners won’t need to make any further purchases as the “release” is essentially another major update for the game. It aims to introduce additional points of interest, along with new artwork for animals, vehicles, armor, and more. Performance optimization is also a focus, as the game has a reputation for running poorly on PC.
Moreover, a roadmap has been unveiled, detailing numerous updates slated for implementation upon the official release of the “1.0” update. These updates encompass overhauls of vehicle assets, introduction of new tools and challenges, graphics enhancements, enhancements to generation, and enhancements to controller support.
Additionally, in Q4 of 2024, updates are slated for weather systems, biome enhancements, crossplay for consoles, while in Q2 of 2025 will finally see the implementation of enemy bandits who occupy the world. New threats, UI and event system updates are on the horizon.
By Q4 of 2025, a story mode and new quest types are in the pipeline.
Many, including myself, are disappointed with this roadmap. The absence of bandits, despite being teased for release in Alpha 21, which took nearly two years to materialize, is a particular letdown. Surprisingly, they are still missing from Alpha 22, now rebranded as the 1.0 launch update.
Additionally, they will also be absent from the first post-launch update, “Storms Brewing,” slated for release at the end of the year.
The stagnation evident from The Fun Pimps has provided an opportunity for newcomers to emerge, seemingly crafting their own more adept rivals in the open-world zombie survival genre, like VEIN. However, VEIN still has a long journey ahead before it could be deemed a superior alternative to 7 Days to Die.
In my view, nothing has changed. The Fun Pimps have been riding on their success for years, with the painfully slow development of 7 Days to Die leaving the game visually outdated and still quite buggy. It’s in need of a complete overhaul.
However, they seem to think that the upcoming game update is significant enough to warrant leaving early access and transitioning to a full-scale release on more platforms. Consequently, they also plan to raise the price of the game. If you’re interested in the game, now might be the time to get it before the price goes up.
