State of Decay 3 has undergone a significant design overhaul, moving away from its initial MMO aspirations after six years of development. Undead Labs CEO Philip Holt confirmed that the studio is rebuilding the game to more closely align with the core experience of its predecessors, focusing on single-player and co-op gameplay rather than a large-scale online persistent world.
According to Holt, the original vision under founder Jeff Strain was to create an MMO, which dictated the game's early development direction. "When the founder was here, I think he always had a vision of making an MMO and the ultimate global scale of a zombie apocalypse," Holt told GamesIndustry.Biz. "And so there was just a different set of creative objectives the team was trying to pursue at that time."
However, by the end of 2022, Undead Labs decided to abandon the MMO plan. The studio has since been working on rebuilding the game. "We basically rewrote the entire State of Decay game, and we will not do that again," Holt stated, adding that the current iteration has been in development since 2023. This extensive rewrite means the studio is unlikely to spend as much time on future projects as they have on State of Decay 3.
The initial trailer for State of Decay 3, shown at the 2020 Xbox Games Showcase, teased features that would not make the final cut, such as undead deer and frozen environments. Holt indicated that this trailer was primarily intended to maintain the project's visibility with Microsoft.
Since then, Undead Labs has become an independent, employee-owned entity following Xbox's divestment from the studio. State of Decay 3 does not yet have a release date, but it is confirmed to be available on Xbox Game Pass.