r/StateOfDecay

Undead Labs, the studio behind State of Decay, is facing potential closure. This matters because these games have meant so much to so many of us—not just as entertainment, but as a genuine escape during tough times.

I started a petition asking Microsoft and industry stakeholders to step in and keep the studio alive. State of Decay 3 is on the horizon, and the community is genuinely excited about it. Losing Undead Labs would mean losing not just the games we love, but the creative voices behind them.

If you've gotten something out of State of Decay or just think studios like this deserve a fighting chance, consider signing and sharing. Has this series meant something to you? What would it mean to lose it?

Go ahead, get mad if you want, but now that we’ve had a glimpse of the alpha, I’m just going to say it:

The game looks pretty sad.

There are no major gameplay changes; it feels like I’m looking at *State of Decay 2.5*.

And seeing people excited for the release? Lol—is there really so little else for you to sink your teeth into?

This post isn't meant to troll or bait rage, but I can't wrap my head around how little work this studio has done in the nearly nine years between the release of *SoD2* and the (supposed) 2027 launch.
Honestly, it cracks me up to see so much of the community happy with such a bland game—one that feels exactly like playing a title from 2015.

Concrete improvements to base, survivor, or community management? Nope.

Satisfying combat? Nope (ooh, look, you can dodge backward away from a zombie—wwoooooowwwww).

A polished, immersive interface—like the beautiful notebook in *SoD1*? Nope; we’re stuck with a totally bland, generic UI.

Storage chests with smaller inventories than your own backpack? YES.

An empty map with no random events to breathe life into your sessions? YES —hasn't happened since the first game!

I could go on; there are so many areas needing work based on the info we've seen.
Releasing what amounts to a "2.5" version of the sequel eight years later?
I find that pretty bold of them. I say this because I loved the concept of this game; it managed to stand out through innovation, unlike other zombie survival titles.
But I think we’ve reached the point of no return now—you’ll think back to this post when it finally comes out (assuming it *does* come out, of course, which doesn't look likely).

I know a lot of people here are going to come after me because they aren't ready to hear that their beloved game or franchise really has nothing left to offer—but the truth is, it doesn't.

Still, knock yourself out if you're willing to shell out cash for a studio that’s done absolutely nothing and will likely release an unfinished game, pushing out one monthly update just to fix a single bug.

I can see the disaster coming a mile away. Anyway, I’m waiting for the release just so this post can resurface and people will finally get what I was driving at.

And given the rumors circulating, it's not even certain that it will be released.

>

Based on recent rumours about Undead Labs future im sure everyone would agree that they should just release it to Early Access immediately (i for one would pay) and hopefully that tides the company over.

Also, I wouldnt even mind collaborations with zombie franchises for specific characters generating them additional income if it keeps them alive!

For example, a Walking Dead collaboration, you can use Rick once per new save for example.

I began playing State of Decay 2 when the game released in 2018. My intention was looking at the trailer to play this with my brother multiplayer. The advertisement for the game looked brilliant, however, reality soon hit. The multiplayer was nothing short of a disaster, the tethering just totally ruined the experience. Despite my disappointment in that as it seemed to one of the main themes of the trailer I continued solo. I probably logged around 500-600 hours between Xbox 1 and PC. I had a pretty enjoyable time, the game after the early buggy stages was remarkably fun. However as time passed with all games I got bored.

Fast forward to the announcement trailer for SoD3... Zombie animals, new features etc... it seemed pretty exciting. We had no idea when it would release but a conservative estimate for any new game recently announced would be around 2-4 years. Afterall SoD2 released 2 years after its initial announcement. After years of dragging their heels, online controversies, requirements for other developers to have to help Undead Labs where are we?

Well in my view all we have is a remastered copy of SoD2, yes it looks good on the surface. But beneath that it looks like the same game. Alpha or not I expected much more, I would have expected 6 years post announcement that Undead Labs might have actually conjured something worth looking at. Now on this reddit post I am reading people blaming Microsoft, claiming that they are the problem here.

I will caveat my next point by saying I am no supporter of Microsoft, I find large companies like them to be extremely lecherous. However, it makes no financial sense to continue backing Undead Labs when they have produced nothing in 6 years that looks remotely like a finished and new unique game. I personally was not expecting a reskinned SoD2. If that is what they intended on producing at the start they should have just made a remaster. Nice lighting and fancy graphics are not enough to impress me. I want content, new content that actually provides a new experience.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Unless we’ve been really misled in the alpha footage, it seems very odd to shutter UL with a working alpha that people are excited about.

SoD 2 had strong sales over its lifetime and 3 has high steam wishlist with a passionate fan base. If you add a year for delay, it doesn’t seem unreasonable EA could fund the remainder of development till release.

For the first time in the series, players can grow beyond a single base in State of Decay 3.

Do you think multiple bases are an important addition?

I enjoy State of Decay. I played both games and genuinely love the series. But honestly, I do not blame Xbox leadership for questioning the future of Undead Labs or threatening to shut things down.

We have been waiting eight years for State of Decay 3. This is not GTA VI, where a studio can disappear for a decade and still expect the entire industry to stop when they finally return. Most franchises do not have that luxury. Fans move on. The genre moves on. Expectations move on.

And from the footage we have seen so far, State of Decay 3 does not look like a major evolution of the gameplay experience. It looks more like a next-gen upgrade of State of Decay 2. The setting still appears to be rural America. The core gameplay loop still looks familiar. It feels like they spent eight years recreating State of Decay 2 in Unreal Engine 5.

That is hard to ignore when other zombie survival games have spent that same time evolving.

State of Decay, DayZ, and 7 Days to Die all came out or entered early access around 2013. Since then, DayZ and 7 Days to Die have built strong, active communities. They are constantly on Steam charts, they have active viewers, and they have grown through updates, mods, custom servers, and community-driven playstyles. Those games kept changing. They gave players tools. They listened to their communities. They allowed people to help shape the experience.

Meanwhile, State of Decay 2 had the full weight of Microsoft behind it, and yet the series somehow allowed smaller, rougher early-access games to build bigger long-term ecosystems around them.

And that is not even counting the zombie mods in games like GTA V, which have attracted dedicated fanbases of their own. Even mods in other games have managed to create fresh zombie survival experiences while State of Decay has been trying to figure out what its next step should be.

When I look at State of Decay 3, I do not see a bold reinvention. I see something that still feels trapped in the design language of the Xbox One era. It looks familiar, safe, and strangely stale for a game that has taken nearly a decade to arrive.

I understand Undead Labs is not Rockstar. I understand they are a smaller studio. But so were the teams behind DayZ and 7 Days to Die. Those games did not have the security of Microsoft backing them from the start, and yet they managed to build communities, iterate, and stay relevant.

That is what makes this so frustrating. State of Decay had the concept. It had the fanbase. It had the backing. It had the opportunity to become the definitive zombie survival franchise on Xbox. Surprisingly, there is hunger for story driven zombie games.

Look at the success of Sony's The Last of Us, another game that came out in 2013. Though *technically" not zombies. They released two games, remastered them for the next-gen, ported to PC, and even an entire TV series.

What did undead lab do with Microsoft...? Exactly.

Instead, it feels like the studio spent years trying to make a polished version of the same idea rather than taking real risks. They could have embraced early access, leaned into community feedback, supported modding, expanded multiplayer, and let the fans help shape the future of the series.

But from what we have seen, State of Decay 3 feels less like the next chapter and more like a remake of the last one with better graphics.

And after eight years, that is not enough.

I'm angry. I bleed Xbox green. I really want to play this game State of Decay 3. I still jump on State of Decay 2, especially during the summer because I have a lot more time. I hate that State of Decay 3 could never be released, but the industry has moved. It's time for me to move on too. I wouldn't suggest someone purchasing this studio. They've had their 15 minutes of fame, but it's time to retire this series and studio to the bargain bin.