it's gone very quiet on the dayz front. the reality has now hit home that the game will never be finished. they are unable to fix the problem of zombie numbers (more than 3 or 4 at once causes issues) there are a ton of other glitches but all the developers concentrate on is pointless cosmetic stuff like making new hats or coats... there are a couple of extremely similar games which will eclipse dayz easily, so i wouldn't waste your money on it.
not dead as such, just the realisation that it will never deliver as promised but there are other games which are playable now (still in pre-release) which already offer more than what dayz does.