Following its acquisition of several studios like State of Decay developer Undead Labs, Microsoft Studios head Matt Booty told Eggplante that the company “absolutely” wants to make State of Decay 3. In fact, he went as far as to state that “this is a State of Decay 3 team”.
Speaking to the site, Booty noted the success of State of Decay 2, which launched on May 22nd and had two million players in the first two weeks. The original goal for State of Decay was something grander though.
“When we first started working on State of Decay, we had a much bigger game, a much more persistent online game, and I know that Undead Labs will get there eventually, but by bringing them into the Microsoft family. I think we’re able to accelerate that and get us there sooner which is great.”
Indeed, we had heard about such a project before State of Decay 2 was officially announced. Booty then followed up by stating that, “In the case of Undead Labs, we absolutely want to go make State of Decay 3. That is a clear goal. That studio will have some other incubation, they’ll work on some things, but this is a State of Decay 3 team.”
Microsoft could be looking for that MMO aspect in the sequel and that too as quickly as possible. The real question is whether quality control at Microsoft will help polish up many of the game’s core issues. State of Decay 2 has been fairly successful (though how many players are from Xbox Game Pass hasn’t been confirmed), it was criticized for its lack of polish, bugs and glitches.
While State of Decay 3 won’t happen immediately, Undead Labs working under Microsoft Studios could bear fruit for the latter sooner than we anticipated. What are your thoughts on another sequel? Let us know in the comments.
