State of Decay 2 is heading to Steam next year, two years after its original launch as a Microsoft exclusive on Xbox One and PC. The open-world zombie survival game follows its predecessor and the remastering which are both already on Steam. It will feature cross-play among Windows, Xbox, and Steam players in the game's four-player co-op.
Undead Labs did not provide a specific release date yet, saying to expect it in "early 2020." The development studio was acquired by Microsoft in the summer 2018 after the launch of State of Decay 2 last May. The game did not earn high marks from the 115 critical reviews on OpenCritic, today averaging a Fair 68. It has since released several DLC packs, big and small, free and paid, spanning things like a Fourth of July weapons and vehicle pack to major expansions like Return to Trumbull Valley which returned the original game's map to the series. DLC continues to roll out regularly for the game.
The studio also quietly announced today that the game has surpassed six million players across both of its current platforms. It was the second first-party game to ever be included in Xbox Game Pass as a launch day addition to Microsoft's growing library.
The original State of Decay earned a name for itself after it was the second-fastest selling XBLA game ever to release on Xbox 360, behind only Minecraft. At the time, the Seattle-based Undead Labs was a small studio of only two dozen. Many Xbox fans expect their next unannounced project to be State of Decay 3, as long ago it was revealed that the endgame plans for the franchise were for it to become a fully-fledged zombie MMO.
Neither Undead Labs nor Microsoft have yet revealed or even so much as teased what the next game, but with so many new first-party studios working on secret projects for the next generation of Xbox, Phil Spencer said at X019 that he expects to have first-party game reveals at virtually every Microsoft event going forward indefinitely. It's only a matter of time until Undead Labs is due to show off what they've been working on.
