''State of Decay'' is a series of third-person

survival horror Survival horror is a Video game genre, subgenre of horror games. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical action games through limited ammunition or weapons, health, speed, and visio ...

video games. The series was created by

Undead Labs Undead Labs LLC is an American video game developer based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in November 2009 by Jeff Strain and developed the '' State of Decay'' series. In 2018, Undead Labs became part of Microsoft Studios (now ...

and published by

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

. To date, there are two installments in the franchise, and an upcoming third game.

Common gameplay elements

''State of Decay'' is a series of

video games. All the games feature an

open world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...

environment that is infested with zombies. The core gameplay loop revolves around finding and fortifying strongholds, explore the world to rescue survivors and collect various resources such as food and equipment, and defend the base against zombie attack. The second game introduces four-player co-operative multiplayer to the franchise. Unlike many other zombie games in the market, ''State of Decay'' is not about killing zombies. Instead, the player must try to avoid them, scavenge and manage resources and interact with other survivors. According to

Jeff Strain Jeff Strain is an American entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of three independent video game studios, most recently Possibility Space. In 2000, Strain cofounded ArenaNet, where he worked as an executive producer and programmer on the popular onli ...

, the founder of Undead Labs, the series explores the "human element", how people interact with each other and make choices in a time of desperation and hopelessness.

Games

''State of Decay'' (2013)

''State of Decay'' is the debut title for

. Originally announced as "Class3", it was released for the

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

, and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

in June 2013. It quickly became a commercial success, selling 250,000 copies in 2 days. An enhanced version of the game, titled ''State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition (YOSE)'', which introduced new weapons, vehicles and characters, was released in 2015 for Windows and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

''State of Decay 2'' (2018)

''State of Decay 2'' was the follow-up to the first game. It introduces a four-player cooperative mode, which was scrapped in the first game due to limited resources, to the franchise. It was released for the Xbox One in May 2018. While the critical reception to the game was mixed, the game was the best-selling video game in the US in its month of release, with launch sales doubling that of the first game. Enabled by the success of

Xbox Game Pass The Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service as part of Xbox and offered by Microsoft Gaming. Launched on June 1, 2017, the service allows users to download and play video games via video game consoles, Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS, iPad ...

, the game had more than 5 million players in 2019. An expansion, ''Heartland'', as well as several pieces of

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

, were released for the game. An enhanced version of the game named the "Juggernaut Edition" which added numerous quality-of-life improvements to the game, was released in March 2020.

''State of Decay 3'' (TBA)

Following the release of ''State of Decay 2'', Microsoft fully acquired

, making it a first-party studio. It is working on the third installment in the franchise, which is set to be released for Windows and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

Cancelled project

''Class4'' was originally intended to be a follow-up to the first game. It was envisioned to be a

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

. However, the concept was abandoned following the success of ''State of Decay'', as fans of the game were requesting a more expanded and polished sequel instead of a game that was drastically different.

References

{{Xbox Game Studios Microsoft franchises Video game franchises Microsoft games Open-world video games Horror video games Survival video games Video game franchises introduced in 2013 Video games about zombies