Undead Labs revealed State of Decay 3 to the world six years ago, in 2020, because studio head Holt feared development could be derailed if Microsoft acquired or divested the team before it had a chance to showcase its work. The announcement came during an Xbox showcase and was driven by anxiety over Microsoft’s relentless acquisition spree that had already swallowed up PlayGround Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games.
The comments surfaced in an interview with The Game Business, during which Holt admitted that while a small team worked on the game as far back as 2020, development did not truly gain momentum until 2023. State of Decay 3 was first unveiled six years ago, two years after the release of State of Decay 2, continuing the series’ simulated-apocalypse premise in which players manage food, resources, and the morale of their survivors while fending off waves of the undead.
A Marker on the Table
The studio’s unease was rooted in Microsoft’s acquisition strategy. Microsoft acquired Undead Labs, alongside PlayGround Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games, in 2018, but by the time State of Decay 3 was being discussed, Holt suspected the tech giant would begin targeting larger studios rather than small developers. That concern coincided with Xbox announced its intention to purchase Activision Blizzard in 2022.
Holt acknowledged that the game’s announcement trailer was meant to serve as a mission statement but failed to reflect reality, since the team had very little going on at the time. “I got myself in a little trouble saying we didn’t really have a team working on the game at that point,” Holt said. “It’s not entirely true, but we had a really small team.”
“I was a little worried about getting swallowed up or even divested before we had a chance to present to the world what we were working on.”
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