It’s been a long while since we had any news on State of Decay 3. The zombie apocalypse survival adventure sequel was first unveiled way back in July 2020 during that summer’s Xbox Games Showcase. However, aside from that one early reveal cinematic, it’s been pretty much radio silence on the game’s progress ever since.
That’s probably not too surprising, given that we’ve had two years of a global pandemic and there’ve been a whole host of other industry issues affecting game development in general. However, for fans eager for news on the planned sequel to the hit zombie survival game State of Decay 2, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. Kind of.
In a new episode of Larry Hryb’s official Xbox Podcast, Xbox Games Studios CVP Matt Booty shared some interesting nuggets of information about how things are currently going at Undead Labs. It seems that State of Decay 3 is definitely still in the works and is currently taking advantage of being able to collaborate with another studio that operates under the Xbox Games Studios umbrella.
According to Booty, Undead Labs has been working with fellow Xbox studio The Coalition, specifically when it comes to making use of their Unreal Engine 5 technology. He explains that some of the work done by The Coalition on the Gears of War games has come in useful for the team at Undead Labs, who are now using that knowledge and improved technology in the development of State of Decay 3. This kind of echoes what Xbox boss Phil Spencer had to say about the upcoming zombie survival game earlier in the year. Back in March, Spencer elaborated enthusiastically on “some of the advancements” that Undead Labs are making on State of Decay 3, which lines up pretty well with them using the most up-to-date technology in Unreal Engine 5.
It’s good to know that things are still moving in the right direction with State of Decay 3, even if perhaps not as hastily as some members of the community might like. Interestingly, State of Decay 2 continues to grow and thrive. Booty also revealed in his podcast interview that the current iteration of the State of Decay franchise has just hit the 11 million lifetime player milestone. The game’s continued success shows the strength of appetite for more State of Decay content, so it’s great news that the team at Undead Labs are continuing to build State of Decay 3. Hopefully, the latest update, however small, should put rumours of the game’s cancellation to bed.
State of Decay 2 is available to play now on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. There’s obviously no release date yet for State of Decay 3, but we’ll be keeping an ear firmly to the ground for any further news and updates on its development.
