Among the many first-party games that have been in development at studios under the XBOX Game Studios banner, Undead Labs’ State of Decay 3 has perhaps been the one most shrouded in mystery. The title was first announced all the way back in 2020. Since then, however, few details about the project have been revealed. According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, State of Decay 3 is likely to show up at the upcoming June 7th Xbox Showcase.
According to Corden’s report, State of Decay 3 has progressed far along in development that it is undergoing private alpha testing with parts of the franchise’s community. Along with this, he has also indicated that the title will be well polished, especially when compared to State of Decay 2.
“It’s almost certain we’ll see State of Decay 3 at the showcase too, given that it’s already in private alpha testing with a small subset of the community alongside some YouTubers,” wrote Corden. “And from what I’ve heard … it sounds like Undead Labs really, really nailed the ‘AAA’ feel that was absent from State of Decay 2.”
If you’ve been wondering why State of Decay 3 has been taking so long to develop, studio head Philip Holt revealed back in April that, back when the announcement trailer was released, the game only really existed as Word document.
“So that trailer – there really wasn’t a game or game team when we were working on that trailer, like, it was so early,” he said in an interview. “You know, the game was in a Word document. It was really the very beginnings of software.”
The trailer itself was pre-rendered, created completely by Blur, and was meant to be a way for Undead Labs to show its vision for what it wanted State of Decay 3 to be.
As for other development teams part of XBOX Game Studios, Corden doesn’t believe that we will see much in the way of announcements from studios like Rare, Obsidian, Compulsion, Ninja Theory, or Double Fine. He did, however, note that Ninja Theory and Double Fine have been working on projects described as “more ambitious” than their recent outings – Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and Kiln, respectively. However, these projects are still quite early in development, and it is unlikely that either studio will be unveiling it just yet.
Similarly, Blizzard is also expected to sit the June 7th showcase out, since it tends to unveil its major projects during its own yearly event – BlizzCon. Among these is expected to be a shooter based on the StarCraft universe, which rumors have indicated will be closer in visual style to StarCraft 2’s cinematics than Overwatch’s more stylized look.
As for other projects that might be unveiled at the showcase, Corden believes that we might finally get to see what Toys for Bob has been working on – a project that is rumored to be a brand-new entry in the Spyro franchise. InXile is also expected to show off more of its in-development game, Clockwork Revolution.
On the hardware side of things, while Project Helix is unlikely to make an appearance at the June 7th Xbox Showcase, recent leaks have indicated that Microsoft might be getting closer to finally unveiling its rumored third iteration of the Xbox Elite Controller.