The crafting survival genre has gone through an interesting cycle. Its initial rise to popularity resulted in many poorly made games, but recently, it has seen a resurgence driven by games like Valheim and Palworld. One of the first games we enjoyed in the genre is 7 Days to Die, which has seemingly been stuck in Early Access for nearly a decade. Despite being labeled as alpha, 7 Days to Die is actually one of the more feature-complete games in the genre, which we enjoy quite a bit. Several of us first purchased the game in July 2016, and since then, I have personally accumulated 431 hours of time played. We revisit the game annually to see the changes the developers have made, and we’re excited about today’s announcement that the game is on the path to finally reach 1.0.
Having been in development for nearly 12 years, 7 Days to Die has seen over 20 large scale releases, and now the team feels satisfied with its efforts, especially with the current release slated for all PC and consoles. They plan to shift their focus to other ways to support all versions of the game and remain committed to dedicating a majority of their resources to development, even after the release of 1.0. Prior to going stable, experimental builds will continue to be released on Steam. Even after the game reaches 1.0, Steam users will have access to older alphas, as allowed by Steam policies.
According to the published roadmap, 7 Days to Die will exit Early Access in June on PC, with the console launch following in July. The 1.0 version will introduce completely remade vehicle assets, new animals, a new gore system for zombies, increased zombie variance, a new challenge system, new props, road decals, new points of interest, upgraded graphics, optimizations, random gen improvements, and enhanced controller support. In Q4 2024, the Storm’s Brewing update will launch, adding a weather system, biome progression overhaul, wardrobe system, along with crossplay and random gen for consoles. Additionally, this update will introduce new zombie stages, spawn-near-friend features, Twitch drops, outfit DLCs, and more.
Looking ahead to Q2 2025, the A New Threat update will introduce bandits, overhaul the UI and main menu, add an event system, and a new quest type. Finally, in Q4 2025, The Road Ahead previews a trader overhaul, story mode, Steam Workshop support, and another new quest type.
At launch, the standard retail price of the game will increase to $44.99 across all platforms and storefronts. A “Last Chance” weeklong deal will run on Steam from April 22 to April 29, offering the game at its current price before the increase.
You can learn more about 7 Days to Die’s 1.0 launch by watching the video below, or reading this post.
