Undead Labs has announced that it will be hosting playtests for State of Decay 3 throughout the year, and fans can sign up now.
Undead Labs has been pretty silent about its next zombie survival project, State of Decay 3, since its original announcement in 2020. Now, out of the blue, the studio put forth a developer vlog that is calling up fans for upcoming playtests while also giving tiny glimpses of the highly anticipated game in action.
“Over the last few years, most of the team has been doing updates for State of Decay 2,” said Brant Fitzgerald, co-creator of the franchise. “The rest of us have been creating cool [stuff] for State of Decay 3.“
The playtest will give players access to an alpha version of State of Decay 3. To sign up, head to this link and log in with a Discord account. At the time of publishing this, the developer’s server currently seems to be rate-limited probably due to the popularity of the playtest announcement.
“If scavenging supplies in the middle of a zombie outbreak sounds fun to you, then grab your ruck, pack some mags, and head over to our website to register for a chance to be included in the alpha,” added Fitzgerald. “If you don’t get contacted for this round, don’t worry—we’ll keep your name on the list for other opportunities throughout the year.”
Four-player cooperative play, brand-new base building and resource management systems, and plenty of combat are being promised by the developer for the alpha playtests.
From previous announcements, we know that State of Decay 3 will take place years after the first two games, with zombies being even more decayed and mutated. The virus seems to be affecting animals now as well, adding another layer to the dangerous environments and combat. Undead Labs was said to be getting assistance from other Xbox studios like Obsidian Entertainment and The Coalition too.
While a release window has not been attached to the project, a Steam store page has gone up for players to wishlist State of Decay 3. Hopefully, a release date gets shared during the upcoming Xbox Games Showcase of 2026.
