Undead Labs has finally announced the end of content updates for State of Decay 2.
In a post on their own site, they had this message:
“While you’ve enjoyed State of Decay 2 for many years, you may have heard that we are also hard at work on the next evolution of the franchise! Our ambition is to make the greatest zombie survival sim in the franchise, and to do so, we’ll be shifting our focus and resources to making the upcoming third installment, State of Decay 3.
You can expect a final content update for State of Decay 2 coming later this year.”
As for the question of ending State of Decay 2 itself, they have this to say:
“The next update, Update 38, will be the final content update for State of Decay 2, but it is not the end! Whether you’re an owner or you play on GamePass, the game will continue to be available. We just won’t be creating new content or supporting the game after Update 38.”
Undead Labs certainly has a loyal following, but they haven’t quite elevated to the higher tier of Microsoft Studios. The reveal for State of Decay 3 in this year’s Xbox Games Showcase seems to have been a coming out party, to signal to the world that they are ready to take that next step forward.
In spite of State of Decay 3 being announcement, it still does not have a release date yet, or even a release window. So we definitely expected Undead Labs to finish up on State of Decay 2. We imagine there are even some people who believe they should have ended their work on it sooner.
But we will give Undead Labs the benefit of the doubt here. State of Decay 2 was itself a big title in the studio’s transition to AAA game development, and we know they wanted to give it a proper send off. They definitely wanted to address every bug possible, and generally make sure everything was working to the level where they could be proud of where they left it.
Microsoft Gaming seemingly has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to upcoming titles, but it’s clearly bothersome that most of them are still in development. While the Activision deal means that Microsoft is now guaranteed some annual titles, they still need their other studios to deliver on their promised titles.
We probably won’t be getting State of Decay 3 this year, or even in 2025, but hopefully they can meet this promise before this console generation ends.
