H1Z1 zombie game splits into two strains — and spreads to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

The thing about a zombie virus is that it spreads so fast you can’t contain it. Now, publisher Daybreak is finding that something similar is true of zombie survival games.

H1Z1, Daybreak’s open-world online zombie survival game that is still in development, is splitting up into two discrete games. The original game is now known as H1Z1: Just Survive. The second is H1Z1: King of the Kill, and it will focus solely on H1Z1’s competitive multiplayer mode. With these two games, the publisher can now go after both the $3.4 billion massively multiplayer online market (that doesn’t have a monthly subscription) with Just Survive as well as the online shooter genre that is home to games like publisher Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Digital Extreme’s Warframe, and Smilegate’s CrossFire (which makes $1B annually). This split is also similar to a common strategy in gaming where publishers increase their revenue — including average revenue per user (ARPU) — for a product by splitting it into two versions.