Skip to main content

State of Decay 3 reemerges with a new trailer, but no release date

State of Decay 3 zombie.
Undead Labs
Summer Gaming Marathon Feature Image
This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

During the June 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, Undead Labs showed off a new trailer for State of Decay 3. While the trailer didn’t reveal a release date, it did show some new gameplay. The studio also has a new logo, representing its transition from being an indie studio to an Xbox one.

The trailer shows a desolate world filled with zombies and third-person shooter gameplay. The atmosphere feels much more fantastical and supernatural with its red hues, and is akin to Redfall rather than games with a more realistic tone like The Last of Us or Days Gone.

State of Decay 3 - Xbox Games Showcase 2024

For the new logo, Undead Labs worked with 51 Eggs, a branding company. The logo looks to be a skeleton key, referencing that its flagship franchise is in the zombie genre. “We wanted to give the creatives we work with a collective identity that transcends zombies,” said studio head Philip Holt on the studio’s website.

Recommended Videos

Undead Labs was founded in 2009 and partnered with Microsoft to release State of Decay in 2013. State of Decay 2 was released in 2018, and Undead Labs was acquired by Microsoft shortly after. In 2020, Undead Labs announced that it was developing State of Decay 3. Aside from its initial trailer, there was radio silence about the game until now.

The June 2024 Xbox Games Showcase also revealed other Xbox first-party games, including Doom: The Dark Ages.

State of Decay 3 doesn’t have a release date yet, but it will launch for PC and Xbox Series X|S. In the meantime, check out the best mods to implement in State of Decay 2.

George Yang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…
3 new Xbox Game Pass games to play this weekend (November 8-10)
An alien in armor with a light sword standing in front of a space ship window with a planet in the background.

This is a good week for strategy game fans subscribed to Xbox Game Pass because November's first new additions to the service all fall within that genre. Two of them are real-time strategy game classics from Blizzard Entertainment, and the other is a strategic take on an arcade classic. If you're playing on a console, these additions may not mean as much to you, but for Game Pass subscribers with access to a PC, these recently added strategy game games are well worth your time.
StarCraft: Remastered
StarCraft Remastered Announcement

The original StarCraft is a monumental release for Blizzard Entertainment. It gave the studio a third pillar franchise alongside Warcraft and Diablo, was one of the first major esports games, and set a standard that most RTS games after it have tried to follow. In 2017, Blizzard released StarCraft: Remastered, updating the classics' visuals, audio, and online features; that's the version of StarCraft that has come to Xbox Game Pass. While there are more approachable RTS games nowadays, PC gamers should check out the original StarCraft if they've never played it before to better understand the foundational building blocks of the RTS genre.

Read more
Gears of War: E-Day: everything we know so far
The two protagonists of Gears of War: E-Day.

Microsoft and The Coalition have opted to take the Gears of War franchise back to its roots with Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel that will follow beloved characters Marcus Fenix and Dominic (Dom) Santiago during their first fight against the invading Locust horde. This new mainline entry will feature everything fans have come to love about the series alongside fresh experiences only achievable on the newest hardware.

Of course, some players may be disappointed to hear that this upcoming game isn't Gears 6 — but there's good news on that front. Fans eager to know what happened after the conclusion of Gears 5 can rest easy knowing that the team isn't abandoning that storyline.

Read more
3 new Xbox Game Pass games to play this weekend (November 1-3)
xbox game pass recommendations november 1 throne and liberty

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was a monumental addition to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate last week, so no week of additions to the service will live up to that for a while. Still, that didn't stop some more games from trickling onto Microsoft's subscription service in the wake of the latest Call of Duty. In fact, the games that came to the service were quite good. If you're wondering what you should be checking out next as a Game Pass subscriber after you're done with Black Ops 6, consider trying one of these games.
Ashen
ASHEN | Gamescom 2018 Gameplay

In July, A44 released Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and it was part of Xbox Game Pass from day one. Now, the studio has brought its previous Soulslike to the subscription service. Originally released in 2018, Ashen stood out from the crowd at the time thanks to its distinct, grayish cel-shaded look and open-world design years before Elden Ring came out. Ashen still stands as one of the best indie Soulslikes ever released, so those who have never played it before should give it a shot now that it's on Xbox Game Pass. It'll also make for an enjoyable Game Pass Soulslike double-feature with Flintlock.

Read more