Bohemia Recap – April 2020

We're about to enter a new month, but before we do, let's continue the tradition of the Bohemia Recap – a concise blog post that lists our public highlights from the past month. This is what happened in April:

Bohemia Interactive

Although many of us were not yet able to work in their usual offices, we still managed to make good progress, and are expecting no significant changes to our schedules. For that, we're especially grateful to our colleagues who simply weren't able to stay home and have still been coming to the office frequently due to the nature of their work or other circumstances.

To send some positive vibes your way, and to give you some idea of what our current, sometimes unusual, workplaces are like, we put together a quick "Bohemian Greetings" video featuring some of our employees' stations. We hope everyone's safe, healthy, and in good spirits!

Bohemia's Top Tweet in April:

Vigor

For Vigor, April was a very eventful month. One highlight was the release of Season 3: Rivals, which introduced a new seasonal game mode called Shootout on a small portion of the "Sawmill" map. It also added new weapons, weapon skins, customization, consumables, and more to the game. Be sure to watch the trailer and Dev Diary, or read our recent blog post about Season 3 on the Vigor website.

In our previous Recap, we announced the start of Vigor's Nintendo Switch Closed Beta. This test has meanwhile concluded, with over 16,000 people hopping into the Switch rendition of Vigor's post-war Norway. After the Closed Beta, we announced that the game will come out on Nintendo Switch this summer in the form of a Founder's Pack, followed by a completely free-to-play release later in the year. Find out more in this blog post.

We also prepared the Vigor Stay Safe Charity Pack in support of a local hospital in Brno, the Czech Republic (where our Vigor devteam is positioned). The hospital recently found itself under attack by hackers, while its staff already had its hands full with the COVID-19 outbreak. If you want to help us raise money so that we can better defend our healthcare heroes, you can purchase the Stay Safe Charity Pack here. You'll receive a special in-game face mask in return.

For those who are curious about what people are working on Vigor, our Community team recently brought Lead UI/UX designer Petra Oravcová in for questioning as part of their "get to know the #VigorTeam" interview series. Head over to the Vigor forum for Petra's answers.

Vigor's Top Tweet in Apil

Ylands

The Ylands Playlands went through a spring makeover during Easter and provided some 'egg-celent' new toys for everyone to enjoy. Bug fixes, and other Easter-themed stuff such as the Egg Hunt, 'inclueded'. Besides these festivities, we're also pleased to report that the Explorer's Gazette has published its first issue, bringing you all the latest news from the world of Ylands in a newspaper format.

In June, our devlanders will be adding new rideable animals to the game as part of Update 1.3: Watery Waters. The #122 Dev Diary shares more information about what to expect from this update. We also updated Ylands' 2020 development roadmap, revealing the upcoming Update 1.4: Creative Call that is scheduled for release in July.

Ylands's Top Tweet in April:

DayZ

Our team is working on the next DayZ game update and we hope to share more information at a later date. Rest assured, as opposed to what a recent rumor may seem to imply, we're still fully committed to the development roadmap. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, we've started the #PostcardZ competition. Each week we're selecting our favorite screenshot from the ones that were posted on Twitter using the #PostcardZ hashtag. These then get printed on a postcard (signed by the DayZ developers), and are sent by post to the winners. Follow DayZ on Twitter for information on how and when to participate. So far there have been three winners: week 1, week 2, week 3.

DayZ's Top Tweet in April:

Arma 3

Arma 3 continued its sudden rise in player numbers. This month even peaked at 40.000+ concurrent players (the last time that happened was during a Free Weekend in 2018). It's great to see so many fresh and returning faces in the game. We know our veteran players have been welcoming them with open arms (and flying bullets).

The increase in players probably also had something to do with the release of Update 1.98 on April 14th. The absolute highlight of this update was of course the addition of the long-awaited Arma 3 Apex: Old Man scenario. This open-world, singleplayer scenario takes place on the Tanoa terrain and is available for free to everyone who owns the Apex expansion. It's designed to offer an authentic gameplay experience, encourage exploration of the South Pacific locale, and provide as much freedom to the player as possible. Watch the trailer for a quick introduction to Old Man's setting, and make your way to the Arma 3 website for more intel plus the update's full changelog.

Arma 3's Top Tweet in April:

Alright, that wraps up our Recap of April. We'll be back with another one at the end of May. Until then, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, so you'll always be the first to know what's new in the world of Bohemia. Take care and stay safe!