Undead Labs LLC is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The company was founded in November 2009 by

Jeff Strain Jeff Strain is an American entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of three independent video game studios, most recently Possibility Space. In 2000, Strain cofounded ArenaNet, where he worked as an executive producer and programmer on the popular online ...

and developed the ''

State of Decay ''State of Decay'' is a series of third-person survival horror video games. The series was created by Undead Labs and published by Xbox Game Studios. To date, there are two installments in the franchise, and an upcoming third game. Common game ...

'' series. In 2018, Undead Labs became part of

Microsoft Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

(now known as Xbox Game Studios).

History

Undead Labs was founded on November 23, 2009, by

, with the sole focus on zombie-based games. On February 3, 2011 Undead Labs announced that they were partnering with

Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

to publish their games on the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

and now also the

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

. This decision was made after most of the other publishers who showed interest in their games were requesting what they described as "''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

'' clones". The first game ''

'' was released on the Xbox 360 on June 5, 2013 and on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

on November 5, 2013. On January 11, 2014 it was announced that Undead Labs has signed a multi-year, multi-title agreement with Microsoft Studios. Jeff Strain stated that the first State of Decay was "just the start of (Undead Labs') long-term ambitions", and spoke of many future titles potentially entering the franchise. At

E3 2018 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3 2018) was the 24th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers a ...

, Microsoft announced they had entered into an agreement to acquire Undead Labs into

. In 2020, the studio announced their next title '' State of Decay 3'' for Xbox Series X/S and PC. In July 2021 Undead Labs opened a second studio in Orlando, Florida focused on developing animation technology in ''

Unreal Engine 5 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genr ...

'' for Undead Labs as well as for other studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner. Strain left the company by October 2021 and founded another studio, Possibility Space. A 2022 investigation by

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

reported on a sexist studio culture, which was abetted by Philip Holt, the new studio head who replaced Strain, and then-head of HR Anne Schlosser. Schlosser was removed after a Microsoft HR investigation. The

toxic work environment A “toxic workplace” is a colloquial term used to describe a place of work, usually an office environment, that is marked by significant personal conflicts between those who work there. Such infighting can often harm productivity. Toxic workplac ...

, which continued after Schlosser's departure, led to a high employee turnover rate, especially among experienced staff. These issues, combined with a lack of design vision, contributed to extensive delays in the development of '' State of Decay 3''. Employees also blamed Microsoft for not living up to its goals of

diversity, equity, and inclusion Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a conceptual framework claims to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially in the workplace, including populations who have historically been under-represented or subject ...

by not responding to reports of abuse in a timely manner.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Xbox Game Studios 2009 establishments in Washington (state) 2018 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 2009 Companies based in Seattle First-party video game developers Microsoft subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2009 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Xbox Game Studios