Microsoft raises profile of State of Decay series, sequel to appear at E3 2017

By Brad Jones February 17, 2017

state of decay 2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Undead Labs has announced that State of Decay 2 will be a part of Microsoft’s E3 briefing, which is set to be held at the Galen Center in Los Angeles on June 11. The game is a sequel to the studio’s overlooked zombie-slaying adventure from 2013, and looks set to build on its predecessor’s sense of freedom and its many intertwined gameplay mechanics.

State of Decay 2 was officially announced at E3 2016, but beyond a few brief clips of gameplay footage, we didn’t learn a great deal about how the game will differentiate itself from its predecessor. Since then, Undead Labs has been releasing a steady stream of concept art via its official website.

However, there was confirmation that the sequel will introduce drop-in co-operative multiplayer for up to four players. Given that the tagline for its reveal trailer was “nobody survives alone,” it seems fair to assume that online multiplayer will be a big focus for State of Decay 2.

State of Decay was something of a sleeper hit when it launched on the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade service four years ago. Its success was enough to prompt a remaster, which was released in 2015, and its sequel’s unveiling at E3 2016 seems to suggest that it has now become one of Microsoft’s premier video game franchises.

State of Decay 2 is confirmed for Microsoft’s E3 briefing, as per a tweet from the game’s official Twitter account, and we already know that the Xbox conference is going to focus on Project Scorpio. As such, it seems reasonable to expect that State of Decay 2 will be available for both the standard Xbox One and its upcoming hardware revision.

We’ll know more once E3 gets underway in June. The event is still a few months away, but it’s clear that Microsoft is eager to start the hype train early — which isn’t surprising, given that the company plans to show off brand new hardware.

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Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

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