Undead Labs

Undead Labs LLC
Subsidiary
Industry Computer and video games
Founded October 14, 2009 (2009-10-14)
Headquarters Seattle, Washington, United States
Key people
 Jeff Strain (Founder)
Products State of Decay
Parent Microsoft Studios (2018–present)
Website www.undeadlabs.com

Undead Labs LLC is an American video game development studio based in Seattle, Washington, which was founded in 2009 by Jeff Strain, a former Blizzard Entertainment employee and one of the co-founders of ArenaNet.[1] On June 10, 2018, it was announced that Microsoft had entered into an agreement to acquire the studio.

History

Undead Labs was founded in 2009 by Jeff Strain, with the sole focus on zombie based games. 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.[2] 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".[3] The first game State of Decay was released on the Xbox 360 on June 5, 2013 and on Microsoft Windows on November 5, 2013.[4][5][6]

On January 11, 2014 it was announced that Undead Labs has signed a multi-year, multi-title agreement with Microsoft Studios.[7] 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.[8]

At E3 2018, Microsoft announced they had entered into an agreement to acquire Undead Labs into Microsoft Studios.

Games

State of Decay (formerly Class3) is an open world zombie survival horror game, but unlike games such as Left 4 Dead and Dead Island, State of Decay focuses more on survival, stealth, evasion, distraction, securing resources, and moving through the world rather than actual zombie combat. On April 12, 2013 the game was officially announced to release in June 2013 on Xbox Live Arcade and Microsoft Windows at a future date.[9] State of Decay was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace on June 5, 2013.

On August 5, 2014, Undead Labs announced a free-to-play role-playing title for iOS and Android known as Moonrise.[10] After limited releases for iOS in Canada,[11] Denmark and Sweden[12] on December 3, a beta was launched on Steam in early March[13] followed by Early Access on May 27.[14] It was later cancelled before release.[15] Android and iOS were the original planned platforms for the worldwide release, but the Android version was never released as the game was still in beta when it closed.[16]

During PAX Prime 2014, Undead Labs and Microsoft announced a next-gen version of State of Decay, titled State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition.

During E3 2016, Undead Labs and Microsoft announced State of Decay 2 which was released on May 22, 2018. It can be an Xbox Play Anywhere Title; one purchase will grant access to the Windows 10 and Xbox One version of the game.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Studio announcement". Undead Labs. November 23, 2009. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Undead Labs and Microsoft game studios to create zombie..." Undead Labs. February 3, 2011. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Rude QA 2". Undead Labs. February 3, 2011. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ Rosenburg, Adam (February 2, 2011). "'Class3' Coming To Xbox Live Arcade". MTV Multiplayer. Archived from the original on January 1, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  5. ↑ McElroy, Griffon (February 3, 2011). "Jeff Strain Shares His Vision for Class3, a Different Kind of Zombie Game". Joystiq. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  6. ↑ Weathers, Sanya (August 31, 2012). "Faq". Undead Labs. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  7. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (11 January 2014). "State of Decay dev signs multi-year agreement with Microsoft". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  8. ↑ Sarkar, Samit (April 20, 2014). "State of Decay's Lifeline DLC is just the start of Undead Labs' 'long-term ambitions'". Polygon. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
  9. ↑ "SOD release announced to be June 2013".
  10. ↑ "State of Decay studio debuts mobile RPG Moonrise". Archived from the original on August 8, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Limited Release - Canada!". forums.undeadlabs.com. December 3, 2014. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Limited Release - Denmark and Sweden!". forums.undeadlabs.com. December 3, 2014. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Moonrise...Coming to Steam". forums.undeadlabs.com. March 4, 2015. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Now Available on Steam Early Access - Moonrise". Valve. 2015-05-27. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  15. ↑ "Developer Bio: Geoffrey Card". Archived from the original on October 17, 2015.
  16. ↑ Jeff Strain (2015-08-28). "The Sun Sets on Moonrise". Undead Labs. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  17. ↑ http://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/xbox-play-anywhere
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