{"id":378751,"date":"2026-09-23T02:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=378751"},"modified":"2026-09-30T09:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:40:43","slug":"undead-labs-leaves-xbox-state-of-decay-studio-goes-independent-again-amid-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/undead-labs-leaves-xbox-state-of-decay-studio-goes-independent-again-amid-layoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Undead Labs leaves Xbox: State of Decay studio goes independent again amid layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Undead Labs split from Xbox Game Studios<\/strong> and went back to being an independent studio the very same day Microsoft confirmed a new round of gaming cuts. The State of Decay<\/a> developer was hit hard, with significant layoffs tied to the change.<\/p>\n

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The studio hasn’t said how many people lost their jobs. Even so, this didn’t come entirely out of nowhere. Undead Labs had already been hinting that it was pulling away from Xbox after years under Microsoft, which bought the team in 2018<\/strong> after working with it since the original State of Decay launched in 2011. Studio head Philip Holt said Microsoft has been part of the series from the start. Reports also say the company was bought back by management, which would make Undead Labs employee-owned.<\/p>\n\n

If you’re keeping an eye on State of Decay 3<\/a>, the main update is simple: it’s still in development<\/strong>. Reports say it’s in alpha right now and aiming for a 2027 release, though cuts at the studio could still push that around. The same reports say State of Decay 3<\/a> is planned for Xbox, PC, and PlayStation 5. If that holds, it’ll be the first time the series has gone beyond Xbox platforms. A closed beta is also reportedly expected before the end of 2026.<\/p>\n\n

All of this lands in the middle of a larger Xbox shake-up that, according to reports, has brought thousands of job cuts, studio changes, and fresh uncertainty around teams like Ninja Theory. For now, State of Decay 3 is still expected on Xbox, PC, and PS5<\/strong>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Undead Labs split from Xbox Game Studios and went back to being an independent studio the very same day Microsoft confirmed a new round of gaming cuts. The State of Decay developer was hit hard, with significant layoffs tied to the change. The studio hasn’t said how many people lost their jobs. Even so, this … Continue reading “Undead Labs leaves Xbox: State of Decay studio goes independent again amid layoffs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9351,"featured_media":378750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[6823],"class_list":["post-378751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","content-category-games"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9351"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378752,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378751\/revisions\/378752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378751"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=378751"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=378751"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=378751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}