The War Z creator apologizes for 'arrogant' response to the game's rocky launch

In an open letter to the game's community, The War Z executive producer Sergey Titov admitted that developer Hammerpoint Interactive "failed to effectively communicate" its plans for the game and blamed himself for the "haters" flooding the game's Steam page and forums with negative feedback.

"I became arrogant and blinded by the early success and quick growth of The War Z, our increasing number of players, numbers we were getting from surveys, etc., and I chose not to notice the concerns and questions raised by these members of the game community as well as others," wrote Titov. "I chose instead to concentrate on the bigger picture — my dream of turning The War Z from being a game developed by a small indie team into a large online venture, instead of addressing small things first and staying focused on the game issues."

Titov said he was "too focused on how great we are" and proud, and now regrets not addressing the concerns sooner.

Titov blamed community negativity on the development team's absence from the forums, and a lack of updates on planned features. He also said the team relied too much on numbers and actively tuned out negative feedback. Titov's solution includes stricter forum policies and more Hammerpoint involvement on the forums. He also shared his idea to invite 10 The War Z players to the company's headquarters in Los Angeles in order to see the game's progress themselves.

The producer also clarified that the current version of The War Z is the "Foundation Release," or the "first-stage release that [they] use as a foundation to build upon" with all core playable features present.

The War Z was released on Steam on Dec. 19, but was pulled down the same day due to an overwhelmingly negative response from the Steam community.

Titov's full letter can be read on The War Z forums.