Despite being announced four years ago, it now looks like we’re still a long way from playing State of Decay 3, but there are some interesting things happening behind the scenes that have a lot of fans very excited.
The zombie shooter-management sim hybrid was re-released at the Xbox Showcase a few days ago with a rather bland trailer about keeping the memories of survivors alive and escaping near-death situations. quite Game trailers – even if it uses in-game assets to showcase game-related moments.
However, the big news was hidden in the development updates released after the show aired.
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In an Xbox Wire blog post, we learned some interesting facts about the development of State of Decay 3 that position it as a super-game; the product of several well-known studios under the Undead Labs umbrella.
One of the biggest and most promising aspects of the game is its shift to a shared-world experience rather than a limited, session-based one. This is huge for State of Decay, and something Undead Labs has been working on with Obsidian Entertainment.
Yes, this is the same developer behind Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and the upcoming Avowed. However, the studio has expertise in making its own co-op shooter Grounded, and that’s what’s being tapped into here. Undead Labs is working with Obsidian on State of Decay 3’s shared world feature, allowing for seamless online co-op and shared saves. Essentially, the game world will be owned by multiple players.
This isn’t the only Xbox studio lending its expertise; Gears of War’s The Coalition team is known for its mastery of Unreal Engine. The developer specifically helped Undead Labs develop UE5 and achieve a higher level of graphical fidelity. Blind Squirrel Entertainment and Wushu Studios also worked with Undead Labs on State of Decay 3.
According to Undead Labs, not only will this make the game look better, all of these teams’ technical expertise will help create more responsive combat, including more realistic enemy reactions, satisfying mechanics, and gory zombie dismemberment.
While this kind of multi-studio collaboration makes sense, it’s a fairly rare practice in the industry. Technology isn’t usually shared, and it’s rare for a high-profile game to have individual components developed by different teams. Rage 2 is an example, but this practice is more common in the AAA and indie space.
For example, Kepler Interactive is a developer-owned publishing company whose studios collaborate, share knowledge, and contribute to each other’s games.
Hopefully, all of these teams can help get the game out faster. State of Decay 3 doesn’t yet have a release date or target.
