After years of speculation a DayZ 2 trademark has finally appeared, but the filing date is suspicious

When you think of genre defining games, for me, DayZ immediately comes to mind. As survival games have continued to arrive thick and fast in recent years, the impact Bohemia's zombie-stomper has had, alongside the likes of Rust, cannot be overstated. Years after we first heard Bohemia Interactive was potentially working on a sequel, a DayZ 2 trademark has today officially been filed.

As per the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EU IPO) listing, all we have so far is a simple word mark. Now, considering the application owner has yet to be revealed due to an outstanding fee needing to be paid by it, as well as today's date, I'm initially skeptical that this is some sort of elaborate April Fools' joke. However, considering what we know about a possible DayZ 2 so far, it would not surprise me if this was legit.

The first time DayZ 2 cropped up was actually back in 2023, during the Microsoft vs FTC case. On a slide submitted during the evidentiary hearing, we learned everything Bohemia was up to, including Arma Reforger and Arma 4. Of course, we already knew then that both games were in development, but the really juicy part was the revelation that DayZ 2 was also stated to be in the works.

Bohemia has kept quiet about the sequel since, though this isn't surprising considering it's probably fully focused on Arma 4, which is currently slated to launch next year. That being said, multiple job listings for roles on a 'DayZ series' project were spotted late last year. While some suggested they may have been for the upcoming DayZ Badlands DLC which is set to drop this year, the mention of "a bold and unannounced title" in the descriptor doesn't seem to align with this notion.

So, by the looks of things, we could very well be in for DayZ 2 after all. Considering how long the original took to go from Arma 2 mod to early access to a standalone experience, alongside the ongoing work on Arma 4, I wouldn't expect to hear much of anything about it for at least another year or two. At the very least, that leaves plenty of time to continue enjoying the best DayZ servers, though I can't wait to potentially see a DayZ running on Bohemia's excellent Enfusion engine.