H1Z1 Changes Name to Z1 Battle Royale, Reverts Game to 2016

H1Z1, the zombie survival turned battle royale game, has changed their name once again. Now the game is known as Z1 Battle Royale.

The name change comes alongside the beginning of the game's third season. Originally, the game was called H1Z1, but was changed to H1Z1: King of the Kill when the game separated the zombie survival and battle royale aspects into two separate games. Eventually, they would revert back to being called the original H1Z1 name.

The new name also comes with a new development team. Instead of being worked on by Daybreak Game Company's in-house team, it is now being handled by NantG. The new team has already pushed out the first new patch that they believe will bring back the game that so many of you fell in love with.

Since they were referencing the Battle Royale aspect of the King of the Hill version, the new season is called The Return of the King. The update essentially reverts the entire game back to how it was in 2016, referring to the change as a massive point of nostalgia for players and we knew we had to get it in for this patch.

The change seems to have worked. Z1BR's player count has spiked from 1,000 players to nearly 13,000 players at a given time. These numbers still don't compare to the 100,000 range that the game was seeing only a year ago, but its an improvement.

H1Z1 was an important proponent in the development of Battle Royale games. It was one of the earliest games to popularize the genre, alongside Minecraft Hunger Games. The creator of PlayerUnknown's Battleground was actually, a consultant for the game's development after he had done similar work with a DayZ Battle Royale game.

For more information about Z1BR's update, visit the official Steam page.