State of Decay 3 is happening, that much is known. The only problem is that we don’t know exactly when Undead Labs will be ready to show more of the threequel, let alone release it. To make matters worse, we recently heard a rumor that the next title in the community-management-zombie-apocalypse-simulator might be released right around the same time as the PlayStation 6 hits the market, which is much, much later this decade.
According to a discovery made on the Art Station account of Undead Labs’ lighting lead and tech artists, Nora Shramek, State of Decay 3 is coming out in 2027 – six years after the game was officially confirmed.
While it’s still unclear if this is a placeholder or a generous release window, it’s possible that Undead Labs is taking its sweet time with the third game in the series after the tumultuous launch of the second game.
To say that State of Decay 2 launched in a rough state is an understatement. However, Undead Labs persevered and it all paid off. For years, it stuck to the game, updating it with endless hordes of new content and quality-of-life updates, all the while listening to the community for any new features that they could add to make the game better. And, just like a Juggernaut that won’t seem to die, State of Decay 2 limped its way into the good graces of gamers until it built enough equity to establish a sizable community of fans who will swear by how good the game is today – over five years after it first came out.
If you’ve yet to join State of Decay 2 and you’re looking for a proper co-op survival zombie title, you might want to see if this is right up your alley. Undead Labs most recently dropped Update 34, Curveball, last September 18.
With that said, the development on State of Decay 3 should be going well. The majority of Undead Labs’ development team is focused on the next title. This isn’t to say it hasn’t remained committed to State of Decay 2. It has very capable helping hands in Wushu Studio, which Xbox Game Studios tapped to help out earlier this year.
If we’re assuming that State of Decay 3 isn’t coming out until 2027, it’s not necessarily the end of the world yet.
Xbox Game Studios is well aware of how disappointing it is to reveal a game only to have nothing to show for it several years after the initial announcement. It has jumped the gun so many times before with much larger titles, including The Elder Scrolls VI, Fable, and Avowed, that it wouldn’t surprise us if the same thing happened to State of Decay 3 as well.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After what happened with Redfall and Starfield, Xbox is well aware of how much more polishing can do for a game.
So, if anything, we shouldn’t take this potentially lengthy development cycle as a sign of problems popping up during the development. Instead, it hints at a more hands-on approach from both developers and publishers that’s in line with the current trend of video game development.
After, as an upcoming Xbox exclusive, a lot of pressure is on State of Decay 3 to deliver and hit it big.
In the meantime, as previously mentioned, you might want to check out State of Decay 2. It’s still very much alive and kicking, with a vibrant community of survivors willing to help out anyone who’s jumping in this late into the game.
