Open-world zombie survival game State of Decay 3 was announced in July 2020, but according to a Kotaku report yesterday that the game remains stuck in pre-production as the studio struggled with mismanagement, burnout and workplace toxicity following its 2018 acquisition by Microsoft.
Kotaku’s story is based on 12 anonymous interviews with current and former employees, so it’s important to note that this constellation of comments, while upsetting, may not paint the full picture of the state or history. from the studio.
Undead Labs has doubled in size since taking over Microsoft, according to the report, but the departure of studio founder Jeff Strain, who left in 2019, has left a real leadership vacuum. While some employees initially feared Microsoft was changing the studio’s internal culture, it actually took an extremely passive approach, ultimately to the company’s detriment, according to a former employee. “Our collapse came from within, and we could have used [Microsoft’s] help,” they said.
The lack of clear direction early in State of Decay 3 pre-production was exacerbated by problems at the studio. Developers split into “strike teams” to prototype different new features, but there was little communication or oversight, and team members were regularly shuffled around, so there was no consistency in the direction. A former employee said management would ignore quality assurance issues in favor of showing “artificial progress” on the game.
“Milestones consisted of a stack of disjointed features that were less about making a fun video game and more about checking out a roster,” a former developer told the site.
Worse, nine of the former employees interviewed for the report also complained of misogyny, bullying and discrimination at the studio.
“When I interviewed at the Lab, I was sold [the idea of] a studio in transition that made [diversity, equity, and inclusion] a top priority,” one said. “What it was really about was studio management painting a DEI face for Microsoft, while women were constantly being ignored, shunned, interrupted, discussed and blamed.”
Another said women’s views, even on basic issues, were often ‘purely dismissed’ and ‘no one listened to them, even women in leadership positions were outright ignored, discussed and blamed for problems’ .
“We had to implement meeting etiquette because men spoke so badly about women in all meetings and put them down,” another source said. “But the guidelines didn’t help.”
Several employees interviewed for the report blamed the problems largely on Philip Holt, Strain’s replacement as head of the studio. They accused him of rushing friends from other studios to run new Undead Labs offices in Florida and Illinois, and also claimed he helped push two women out of high-level jobs in not adequately supporting men and hiring more senior men. positions to absorb their roles. “It was really a model where women were uprooted and men were protected and supported,” said a current employee.
Microsoft, however, denied the allegations of nepotism, saying in a statement that “there is a rigorous and standardized hiring process at Undead Labs for all potential hires, with visibility and review from multiple members of the studio.”
He also noted that changes to Undead Labs in recent years included “a whole new leadership team” and that 42% of new hires in 2021 were female or non-binary, and 29% belonged to a visible minority group. The studio has also launched new training courses for managers, including a workshop on sexual harassment. Some employees see the changes as a move in the right direction, while others say Holt’s continued presence is a hindrance.
Despite these issues, many current and former employees interviewed for the report said they were very positive about certain aspects of the studio. some have said that although there is room for improvement, it is a very good place to work overall. The Microsoft acquisition has caused some upheaval, but there seems to be hope for a turnaround: a current developer has said changes at the studio could also mean State of Decay 3 could finally start making real progress. “It could be such a cool game and we have a lot of great people working on it, and I just hope we don’t repeat the terrible habits of the past few years,” they said.
Interestingly, Strain, the founder of Undead Labs, has voiced the gaming industry’s need for increased workplace safety and inclusion since he left: in August 2021, he called for unionization in the industry, and in October he co-founded a new studio, Possibility Spacewith a specific commitment to treat employees “fairly and equitably”.
