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JINX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,473
Link: Undead Labs Website
Today we are excited to announce that the Undead Labs Studio Head and Founder, Jeff Strain, is launching an exciting new initiative. As anyone who has played State of Decay knows, big ideas don't always come from the biggest cities or the flashiest neighborhoods. Sometimes the heroes come from places like Marshall or Spencer's Mill. That's why game development needs a bigger base, where the know-how, grit, and ideas of even more people can find their way to the public. As a small town guy himself, Jeff is dedicated to opening a new studio and a partnered broad-discipline game development academy in New Orleans, Louisiana. With the support of Xbox and Microsoft, Jeff's going to continue in his role as studio head at Undead Labs while also building opportunities to bring in people who might not otherwise consider a career in the game industry. Maybe even someone with the vision for the next State of Decay is out there just waiting for the right opportunity! That's all we can say for now, but we'll share more information as soon as we can.
Supposedly SOD3 will be a much bigger game than SOD2 : Microsoft talks State of Decay 3, envisions 'much bigger' persistent online game
"When we first started working on State of Decay, we had a much bigger game, a much more persistent online game, and I know that Undead Labs will get there eventually, but by bringing them into the Microsoft family, I think we're able to accelerate that and get us there sooner which is great."

"In the case of Undead Labs, we absolutely want to go make State of Decay 3. That is a clear goal. That studio will have some other incubation, they'll work on some things, but this is a State of Decay 3 team."
Undead Labs has also grown quite a bit since the acquisition already, is State of Decay become a big AAA franchise for MS?
 
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Alexious

Executive Editor for Games at Wccftech
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
909
Maybe we'll get their dream Class 4 MMO after all. Fingers crossed here.
 

JayWood2010

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,120
Xbox Game Studios has 24 different teams working on their own game that we currently know about, not including Xbox Game Publishing. It really is going to be Games, Games, Games for Xbox SX
 

Nephtes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,550
Awesome news for New Orleans. This is what I always wanted when I graduated computer science way back in 04, a game studio in my home town.

I didn't survive more than one year in the industry out of state...although I did get a trip to E3 out of my time there.
If we're being honest, I blame the lack of good food in Florida.
Also the stringent liquor laws...
 

pg2g

Member
Dec 18, 2018
4,812
New Orleans isn't technically a small town but it is small compared to the major metropolitan areas most game development happens in. Tend to be considered a small market in sports terms as well.
 

pg2g

Member
Dec 18, 2018
4,812
I think the important part is that it is an untapped and under represented market in terms of technology/software development.
 

GING-SAMA

Banned
Jul 10, 2019
7,846
That what I want to hear.

Undead Labs hired great AAA talent since the Acquisition, same for Inxile.

i think Hellblade 2 is the first example of how Matt Booty wants to push their studio to its full potential.
 

Dyashen

Member
Dec 20, 2017
5,158
Belgium
Sweet! The SoD formula has started to grow on me so I'm really happy that they're gonna double down on this franchise for its sequel :)
 

leder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,111
Jeff cashed out and moved to a giant historic mansion in NOLA from Seattle 3 or 4 years ago so this makes sense I guess.
 

SuikerBrood

Member
Jan 21, 2018
15,490
Hope MS and their studios do this in more places. There's plenty of talent around the world, but not everyone gets a chance to work in the industry.