State of Decay 3, the next installment in Undead Labs' flagship franchise, was one of the first games that Microsoft ever announced for the Xbox Series X/S. The title was revealed with a brief CGI teaser trailer during the 2020 Xbox Games Showcase, where it was confirmed to be in development exclusively for Xbox and PC. Even though more than 5 years have passed sinceState of Decay 3’s initial announcement, the game hasn’t been released on Xbox consoles yet and is still nowhere to be found. The last time Undead Labs shared some information on the title was in June 2024, but the company has been mostly silent ever since.
Some rumors and reports over the years have suggested thatState of Decay 3has had some major troubles behind the scenes, with high employee turnover rates and shakeups in management causing it to be delayed internally on multiple occasions. While these issues are likely the primary cause ofState of Decay 3’s unusually long development cycle, it is possible that the game hasn’t been able to meet deadlines for a few other reasons. If a new leak is to be believed, for example, Undead Labs may have started working on a new PS5 version ofState of Decay 3in tandem with its Xbox and PC ports, which may have pushed the game’s projected launch date back significantly.
Xbox and PC Players Won’t Have to Survive Alone if State of Decay 3 Comes to PlayStation
A New Report Suggests that State of Decay 3 is Coming to PS5
The video game website MP1st alleged a few days ago that it had found some developer resumes that provided a few key hints about Microsoft’s future multi-platform plans. According to the report, PS5 was listed in these resumes asa target platform for two upcoming Xbox games:Gears of War: E-DayandState of Decay 3. Although MP1st couldn’t find any clear information about whetherState of Decay 3andGears of War: E-Daywere receiving a simultaneous launch on PS5, this leak did seem to suggest that the games would make their way to the platform sooner rather than later.
A Multi-platform Release Would Make the Tagline of the State of Decay Series More Fitting
IfState of Decay 3does indeed come to PS5 at launch, then the tagline of theSoDseries, “No One Survives Alone,” would be more fitting than ever before. Up until now, theState of Decaygames have been exclusive to Xbox consoles and Windows PC. DespiteMicrosoft’s recent multi-platform endeavors, there have been next to no signs, either from insiders or official sources, that the first two installments of the franchise are being planned for PS5.State of Decay 3being released on PlayStation on day-one would, as a result, buck that trend, and make the series accessible to a wider-than-usual audience.
TheState of Decaygames, for those who don’t know, aren’t wholly single-player, but they aren’t live service multiplayer titles, either. They are basically co-operative zombie survival games that have received consistent content updates in the years since their debuts. WhileState of Decay 1and2were kind of janky and rough around the edges,State of Decay 3seems to be taking the co-op elements of the franchise to the next level.
State of Decay 3 Will Focus a Lot on Co-Op, So It Makes Sense to Bring it to PlayStation
Undead Labs revealed in an Xbox Wire post last year thatState of Decay 3is going to feature a “much larger, truly shared open world,” and that it will have a greater focus on permadeath compared to its predecessors. The company stated that it hascollaborated with fellow Xbox studio, Obsidian Entertainment, on the game’s shared world features, in order to ensure that it will have “more flexible online co-op.” SinceState of Decay 3is seemingly going to rely heavily on its multiplayer components, it makes sense for it to be available on as many platforms as possible at launch. GivingState of Decay 3a simultaneous PlayStation release would ensure that the game has a large and healthy playerbase from the very beginning.
