State of Decay 3 is in "Early Pre-Production"
According to developer Undead Labs.
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Yesterday at the Xbox Series X games showcase, a brief trailer debuted State of Decay 3. Now, developer Undead Labs has specified the stage of development that the sequel is current in.
"We're excited to announce that SoD3 is in early pre-production, and we're looking forward to having more to share in the future," the official State of Decay account tweeted last night, shortly after the showcase. So the sequel hasn't entered full production yet, which is why the reveal trailer that we saw was pretty brief.
Yesterday's reveal trailer showed an unknown character stalking through a snowy wilderness, before coming upon a zombified deer. State of Decay hasn't ever featured zombie animals before, so this looks like one new addition for the sequel.
In the meantime, before State of Decay 3 eventually releases, Undead Labs remains committed to updating State of Decay 2. Asking by a user on Twitter whether the second game would stop being supported when the third game comes out, the State of Decay account replied that they're "not done with SoD2 yet," and that the next update for the game will be releasing later this month.
Right now, State of Decay 3 has only been confirmed for the Xbox Series X. It's likely that the sequel will come to PC at some point though, given that Undead Labs ported State of Decay 2 to the PC after its Xbox One launch, and enabled cross-play between the two platforms. It seems like State of Decay 3 is still at least a few years away from releasing, though.