State of Decay 3: Developer trouble: Zombie sequel is stuck in pre-production

The successful zombie series State of Decay is known to be continued with a third part, but we will probably have to wait a long time for this one. There are said to be all sorts of problems with developer Undead Labs – and Microsoft seems to be at least partly to blame for that.

It has long been known that Undead Labs is working on State of Decay 3 and is continuing the zombie series, but the project is not under a good star. According to a new report from Kotaku’s usually well-informed investigative colleagues, after two years of work, the sequel is actually still in pre-production, meaning it’s a long way from release. Related to this is Undead Labs’ transformation from an independent developer to a first-party Xbox developer.

According to the Undead Labs report, Microsoft almost pushed to announce State of Decay 3 at the Xbox Games Showcase in July 2020 – much too early for the makers’ taste, because the title was far from ready for it. As a result, an internal demo for the Microsoft management level had to be built in a hurry – and that caused further frustration among the employees.

Citing unspecified but apparently internal sources, it is said that two more internal demonstrations were planned for autumn 2021. Both demonstrations should have included real gameplay at the will of Philip Holt, a chief of staff installed by Microsoft after the studio acquisition in 2018. The developers went on the barricades because that would only have been conceivable at all with an immense amount of work. Holt is said to have given in as a result, but some veterans of the development studio would have left as a result.

An unnamed (ex-)developer said: “If that showed what pre-production looks like here, then there was no way I would have stayed here for full production.”

Many things are still in the early stages of development. And there is apparently a lot to be clarified at Undead Labs, especially since allegations of discrimination and misconduct are said to play a role here too. State of Decay 3 does not currently have a release date.