author: Patrick Kubiak
State of Decay Devs Face Accusations of Mobbing and Sexism
State of Decay 3 is still in pre-production. The reason is due to internal problems at Undead Labs, which is rumored to be a toxic place to work.
Announced almost two years ago, State of Decay 3 is stuck in pre-production stage. The reason seem to be the problems of Undead Labs, a studio owned by Microsoft.
The team is said to have toxic working conditions, harassment of subordinates and incidents of sexism are reported in the studio.
What's happening at Undead Labs?
According to journalists from gaming website Kotaku, which uncovered the case, the situation at Undead Labs has been confirmed by twelve anonymous informants - both current and former employees of the developer.
Undead Labs has doubled in size since its acquisition by Microsoft, but in 2019 - a year after the purchase was announced - founder Jeff Strain left the studio, which "left a leadership void." Many of the team members at the time were said to be concerned that the US giant would take the opportunity to change the studio's internal work culture.
In fact, Microsoft left the successor to Strain a free hand, which in the end allegedly only worsened the situation of the company.
"Our downfall came from within. We could have used Microsoft's help," explains one former Undead Labs employee.
Work on State of Decay 3 has come to a standstill
State of Decay 3 is said to be developed "without a clear direction". Developers were split into small groups tasked with developing specific new features, but there was a lack of communication between them and oversight. Management ignored concerns about the quality of the emerging features in favor of presenting "artificial progress" on the title.
"The milestones consisted of piles of chaotic features that were less about making a good video game and more about ticking them off a list."
Sexism at Undead Labs
In addition to gaming-only issues, there were supposedly instances of sexism at Undead Labs and deprecating women. In the words of one studio employee, the opinions of female staff members - even on basic issues - are "outright dismissed" and "nobody listens to them."
"Even women in director positions are ignored, slandered, and blamed. 'We had to introduce meeting etiquette because men treated women so badly,' Kotaku quotes one Undead Labs employee. But the guidelines didn't help."
Developers promise changes
Despite all the problems, many current and former employees interviewed said they were very positive about some aspects of working at the studio.
Major changes are to be made at Undead Labs that will result in changing standards regarding interpersonal relations and work on State of Decay 3 will finally begin to make real progress.. At least that's what the heads of the studio announce.
