'H1Z1' Early Access alpha phase release details out now

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The Early Access alpha phase for the upcoming post-apocalyptic zombie-survival video game "H1Z1" will be released by Sony Online Entertainment today, Jan. 15, months after the teasers for the highly anticipated game went public. 

Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley tweeted a big teaser that made players extra excited for the upcoming alpha phase of the game that will come out on Steam. The president stated that the game is "looking like we'll have 150-200 H1Z1 servers on 1/15" on his Twitter account. 

Meanwhile, "H1Z1" producer Steve George discussed the new improvements for the upcoming alpha release. 

"The AI has gone through a major overhaul. Our sound has changed majorly, our environments and our tree rendering system, many of our regular systems have gone through an overhaul," George exclaimed.

"We've put in an 'Iris' system for your eyes, so they adjust to lighting. When it's dark out, your eyes will adjust so that you see better. [The E3 Judges Day build] was something we thought we were going to put out earlier, but we decided to take a step back and analyze this, deciding to spend some more time with this product and make it a little more golden before we put it out to everybody," he added. 

Since Sony Online Entertainment normally releases free-to-play games, it means that "H1Z1" will be offered just the same. It can be downloaded entirely for free and can be played without any charges. However, the game will include an in-game store that can accommodate microtransactions like selling auxiliary items. On the other hand, survival items like guns, food and water, as well as ammunitions cannot be bought using microtransactions. 

The soon-to-be-released survival MMO sandbox game was unveiled back in April 2014. Aside from the PC edition that can be accessed via Steam, "H1Z1" will also be available on PlayStation 4.