“We have focused consistently on modding, and some of the attention on it has come out of nowhere. Modding is not easy, and there is a lot of work behind it. And it requires the game to support it, and for there to be multiplayer, and we put a lot of work into that. Day Z is a fine example of showing that all that effort was worth it. And there are a number of truly great mods in Arma, which will hopefully now get more attention.”

Spanel notes that modding is something that can only happen on our fairest of formats: “Other formats, iPhone or consoles, they are locked down by third-party owners. The value in the PC is that it is really open, and this can happen here. It has its dark side with hacking and cheating, but there is so much possibility for creativity here.

“It demonstrates that the PC is about creating things – other gaming platforms are solely about consuming, and that’s an important distinction to make. More than half the people working for our company started out as modders. When someone asks me ‘how do I get into game development’ I say ‘do some modding’. And if you look at Rocket’s story with Day Z, you can see that the career progression can be very fast.”