Undead Labs has announced that a closed State of Decay 3 beta is coming sometime in 2026, weeks after the studio separated from Xbox.
The zombie infested threequel has been available to a limited number of people via a series of closed alpha playtests that began this April, but the doors to the apocalypse are swinging ever so slightly open with closed beta playtests set to begin before the year ends, the studio revealed in a new Xbox Wire blog post.
“We’re going to be expanding our alpha and then closed beta to more players over time, this is our largest map ever and with untethered multiplayer, we really need to take the opportunities to stress-test and fine-tune,” wrote Undead Labs’ creative director Kevin Patzelt. “If you don’t get access right away, rest assured there will be more opportunities throughout the year for players familiar and brand new to the series.”
The studio says State of Decay 3’s first wave of testing gave the team a lot of useful insight that it’s now feeding back into the production process, particularly around how combat is balanced in co-op sessions and how the series’ signature permadeath feature does (or doesn’t) affect your entire enclave of survivors.
Alpha playtesters supposedly had praise for the game’s much improved lighting and graphics, clothes and character customisation, and its updated freak zombies – the ones that are so mutated that they stomp around like hulk or explode in a cloud of toxic gas, for example.
Should you want to spill your own guts to the team, you can register interest for the upcoming State of Decay 3 beta before the game launches sometime in 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Notably, today’s news is Undead Labs’ first big announcement since the studio parted ways with former owner Xbox. Last month, Microsoft started a sweeping round of layoffs across its gaming division, which saw the tech giant cut 1,600 jobs and split from four first-party developers, including Undead Labs. At the time, Xbox said it had found a new buyer for the studio, though whoever that mystery owner is hasn’t yet been announced. It’s also unclear if State of Decay 3 will still launch into Game Pass on day one.
