Undead Labs spent years attempting to develop State of Decay 3 as a full-blown zombie apocalypse MMO, according to studio CEO Philip Holt. The shift away from this ambitious scope occurred towards the end of 2022, with the current version of the game, which more closely resembles the scale of its predecessors, being built since then.
State of Decay 3 was initially revealed in 2020 with a cinematic trailer that, as later revealed, bore little resemblance to the game being worked on at the time. The game's original concept was driven by founder Jeff Strain's vision of an MMO capturing the global scale of a zombie apocalypse. Even after Strain's departure in 2019, a small team continued to pursue this MMO direction while the rest of the studio supported State of Decay 2.
"We basically rewrote the entire State of Decay game, and we will not do that again," Holt told GamesIndustry.biz. He added that the experience of developing an MMO was all-consuming, noting "One of the things I learned is just how much respect I have for teams that make successful MMOs, because I've seen them swallow people whole."
This significant creative pivot meant discarding a substantial amount of previously developed work. Despite the studio's recent independence from Xbox and subsequent layoffs, Undead Labs has secured publishing support for the game's final development stages, allowing them to continue working towards a release.