https://wccftech.com/state-of-decay-3-pre-production-mismagement-sexism-undead-labs/

What is happening with State of Decay 3? The game was announced via an impressive teaser trailer back in 2020, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has gone so far as to say it’s his most anticipated game, but we haven’t received almost any concrete details about it. Well, it seems there’s a reason for that. According to a new in-depth expose from Kotaku, State of Decay 3 remains in pre-production amid reports of sexism and mismanagement at developer Undead Labs.

Undead Labs reportedly wasn’t really prepared to show State of Decay 3 in 2020, but felt pressured to do so as a new member of the Xbox Game Studios team. Behind the scenes, there were fundamental disagreements as to what State of Decay 3 should be – an ambitious zombie MMO like the first SoD was originally intended to be? Or a more conservative iterative sequel? Various “strike force” teams were formed to create new concepts, but there was little coordination between them, resulting in a pile of disconnected ideas with no strong core. Management pushed to create internal demos of the game by late 2021, but with no clear vision, staff revolted and thus the game remains in pre-production.