DayZ, simply put, needs more time for some optimisation changes, according to Dean Hall. Mr Hall took to Reddit on Monday due to the community waiting for...let's say, a while. So naturally, Dean had to address what state the Alpha is currently in and why it still isn't within our grasp yet:

"We need more performance," Mr Hall states. "We think we need a minimum of 15 FPS [server-side with] 50 players, 2000 zombies, and 25000 loot items. Our latest tests have all shown some runaway systems in the code we have to tidy up." Oh dear, sounds like some messy work behind the scenes, nonetheless he has publically stated that Bohemia's engine wasn't designed for the execution of the entire scale of what DayZ has done, and is still trying to do. Although, Dean has actually admitted that performance is still smooth with a low player count of '10-20' clients being connected simultaneously.

BUT, one questions remains unanswered....how many DayZ's will we have to wait before we know of the release of the standalone?  "If I start saying 'oh it won't be out then' people start asking me about the day after, and the day after," he writes. "So it just encourages people to keep asking me when it is, and the 'announced date' would be when I go 'yeah, it could be out then.'"