Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Founded | November 23, 2009 |
Founder | Jeff Strain |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Products | State of Decay series |
Number of employees | ~60[1] (2018) |
Parent | Xbox Game Studios (2018–present) |
Website | undeadlabs.com |
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 known as Xbox Game Studios).
Undead Labs was founded on November 23, 2009, by Jeff Strain, with the sole focus on zombie-based games.[2] On February 3, 2011 Undead Labs announced that they were partnering with Microsoft Game Studios to publish their games on the Xbox 360 and now also the Xbox One.[3] This decision was made after most of the other publishers who showed interest in their games were requesting what they described as "World of Warcraft clones".[4] The first game State of Decay was released on the Xbox 360 on June 5, 2013 and on Microsoft Windows on November 5, 2013.[5][6][7]
On January 11, 2014 it was announced that Undead Labs has signed a multi-year, multi-title agreement with Microsoft Studios.[8] Jeff Strain stated that the first State of Decay was "just the start of (Undead Labs') long-term ambitions", and spoke of many future titles potentially entering the franchise.[9]
At E3 2018, Microsoft announced they had entered into an agreement to acquire Undead Labs into Microsoft Studios.[10] In 2020, the studio announced their next title State of Decay 3 for Xbox Series X/S and PC.[11] In July 2021 Undead Labs opened a second studio in Orlando, Florida focused on developing animation technology in Unreal Engine 5 for Undead Labs as well as for other studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner.[12]
Strain left the company by October 2021 and founded another studio, Possibility Space.[13]
Year | Title | Platform(s) |
---|---|---|
2013 | State of Decay | Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One |
2018 | State of Decay 2 | Microsoft Windows, Xbox One |
TBA | State of Decay 3 | Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X |