In a completely unexpected turn of events, 7 Days to Die is actually coming out of Early Access. Soon!

The Fun Pimps are happy to announce 7 Days is leaving Early Access! With the launch of the next update, we’re moving officially to 1.0 for 7 Days to Die.

TFP Co-Founder Richard Huenink details the move in this Video. He’ll talk about our decision to leave early access, the tentative launch dates for PC and Console Alpha 22 (Now 1.0), the roadmap of planned future updates and features ahead for all platforms, and the games new pricing. 

I say “completely unexpected” because, well, it is. The game has indeed been in Early Access for 12 years already, with Alpha 22 (now “1.0”) slated to come out in a few months. However, the Early Access period has been so long due to the dev team having no project manager – each major release has radically redesigned the scope of the game, changing progression mechanics, and otherwise putzed around art assets without actually making forward progress on systems or endgame.

But now they are, so… why aren’t I happy? Take a gander at the roadmap:

I don’t think you really even need to know anything about the base game to intuit that the stuff in the 2025 columns would, in fact, be a more appropriate 1.0 experience. In particular, Bandits have been promised for literal ages, and are still nowhere to be found. Do I believe we will get a UI/Main Menu Overhaul? Yes I do. Will there also be Bandits? Not falling for it this time, Lucy.

What is really going on with this 1.0 release is the increase in base pricing.

Q: Why increase the cost?
A: We feel as though the quality standard of the game has gone up significantly from when the initial price was set over 8 years ago along with over a decade of content and improvements. We’ve looked at how others have handled leaving early access, and this is a common practice. We in particular want the price of the PC version to have parity with the Console version. We do not wish to force any current users to spend more money to play the game they’ve always supported. However, new users should see the value the game offers reflected in the cost, and we hope that continued support might fund future endeavors in expanding the 7 Days to Die game even further – DLCs, Expansions, and continued free updates (including everything listed in the Road Map)!

Look, my intent is not necessarily to paint The Fun Pimps as capitalistic assholes. I bought the game 7 (!) years ago for $10, and even now you can still purchase it this week for $5.99 ahead of the $44.99 (!!) price increase. In those years, I have played for over 327 hours. And regardless of any price increases, my copy will be upgraded for free, I’ll get all the updates for free, and so on.

It’s just that this “release” is clearly a business decision first.

This is especially true in terms of the console re-release. The history is that the game was released on consoles back in 2017 but had been stuck in Alpha 15 ever since then because porting company went bankrupt. We’re in Alpha 21 on PC, for reference. The Fun Pimps reacquired the rights a few years ago, but financially it never made sense for them to hire out another porting team. Until now.

Q: What about the old Console version?
A: Due to the significant technical differences between old and current console hardware,  we will not be upgrading the legacy version. Legacy owners will have to buy the new title.  However, we are working closely with Sony and Microsoft to provide a discount to digital legacy owners on their purchase of the new console edition. 

We made the decision early on to focus on a ‘new’ version of the game that is unified with our PC version, and our efforts to update the game post-launch will be entirely focused on that version.

Again, good on them for trying to get console fans a discount, assuming such a thing materializes. It also makes sense that you may have to cut your losses and start fresh with a new version given all the difficulties up to this point.

I just… I dunno. It’s complicated. As I mentioned last year, each Alpha has included a seemingly pointless overhaul of the progression system, although each iteration has taken it further and further away from zombie MineCraft and more towards something generic. Once upon a time, you would come across a small town and break into houses to scavenge for supplies and hope a big wandering mob of zombies didn’t stroll in after you. Now, 100% of the Points of Interest are mini-dungeons with traps, blocked corridors, zombies popping into existence when you cross thresholds, and a loot chest at the end. Which is cute the first time you come across the PoI, but later you just stack wooden frames and hack your way through the roof to get the loot chest and skip the mini-dungeon part.

Assuming you aren’t just spam-completing quests from the Traders, since that is actually the best way to get gear; crafting shit with resources you gather is sooooo 2017. Oh, and base-building? Yawn. Despite the fact the entire game is premised on a wave of zombies attacking you every 7 days, the devs have decided that the zombies are omniscient structural engineers who know both the shortest distance to your brains and which specific wall cubes in the way have the least amount of HP. Which, of course, means “traditional” structures like bunkers or buildings with a bunch of traps surrounding it are pointless. Instead, you need to construct Ninja Warrior obstacle courses for zombies to tight-rope walk towards you single-file for anything you build to have meaning.

Or just sit on top of a roof for a couple of weeks before moving to a different building. Whichever.

In fairness, all of this nonsense was introduced in patches, and it’s entirely possible to remove it in the same way. Given the consistency in which the devs have moved backwards though, I don’t have much faith in them spontaneously understanding why their game was popular to begin with and to stop undermining it. So while the business decisions they are making with 1.0 are rational and the last-chance deals magnanimous, I still don’t like it.

About the only bright side to all this is that, perhaps, having a firmer foundational codebase will encourage more modders to fix all the bullshit. Darkness Falls is already a transformational mod that improves the game in about every way, and I know of others (Undead Legacy). That last Q4 2025 slide does says “Steam Workshop Support” so that may be the golden ticket. We’ll just have to see.