As a survival game, the player character is in constant need of water and food for sustenance, as well as being vulnerable to injury and illness. The player can either spawn into a randomly generated world or the pre-set world of Navezgane, Arizona. The goal of 7 Days to Die is to survive as long as you can while fending off the elements and the hordes of zombies. The video with more explanation has since been removed by the developer. Though there is no real objective except surviving at this moment, the developers promised a dynamic storyline in the Kickstarter and stretch goals. The player is a survivor of the war who must survive by finding shelter, food and water, as well as scavenging supplies to fend off the numerous zombies (hinted to be the consequence of nuclear fallout, a new strain of flu, or both) that populate Navezgane. The game's events happen during aftermath of a nuclear Third World War that destroyed an extremely large part of the world, except for some areas such as the fictional county of Navezgane, Arizona. It is also available on Xbox One via Game Pass, but still unknown if it will return on PlayStation 4.

In late 2022, The Fun Pimps announced that game will be re-released on consoles targetting Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. Versions for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released in 2016 through Telltale Publishing, but are no longer being developed. It was released through Early Access on Steam for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X on December 13, 2013, and for Linux on November 22, 2014. 7 Days to Die is an early access survival horror video game set in an open world developed by The Fun Pimps.

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