It’s a New Era for the State of Decay Studio

State of Decay developer Undead Labs has unveiled a fresh logo and website to reflect the start of a new era. The third entry in the series still doesn’t have a release date, but it may mark the beginning of a different path for the studio. Undead Labs‘ refreshed branding is noticeably less zombie-centric than its previous iteration.

The news follows at the tail of the final patch for State of Decay 2 as the team focuses on the next installment. While some fans may have expected all following updates to focus on the upcoming third game, Undead Labs treated them to a fresh look at the studio itself instead.

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Undead Labs revealed its new era in a YouTube video posted to State of Decay‘s official channel on October 31. The video begins with a brief history of the team, detailing how it’s grown from a group of 20 to one of over 100 across three cities. As the company grew, so did its ambitions, leading Undead Labs to consider how its branding reflected this change. Just as State of Decay 3 hints at major changes for the franchise, Undead Studio’s new look could suggest a bigger future.

Undead Labs Moves Away from Zombie Branding

In the announcement, Studio Art Director Wayne Laybourn explained how the team wanted to push its brand beyond its previous focus on zombies. While the name “Undead” may still reflect that, the new logo and website feature skulls, arcane symbols, and other spooky imagery; the monsters themselves are now absent. The zombie hand, brain, and eyeball are gone. Of course, the upcoming game will still include the undead, although State of Decay 3 may ditch zombie animals, but that may not be true for every future title by the studio.

Undead Labs may be working on more than just State of Decay 3, as an employee’s LinkedIn profile hints at “not-yet-released projects.” The video unveiling the new imagery doesn’t mention any future games, but Laybourn does mention the studio wanted to give them more “room to explore” beyond directly working on a zombie game. While that does not explicitly mean the devs will work on non-zombie games in the future, such a title would make sense in light of that larger goal. Still, what that may be or when it could come out is still a matter of pure speculation at this point. Devs explained wanting to emphasize stories of humanity and mortality in the new branding, which zombies certainly fit into, but fans will have to wait and see what else that could mean.

It’s difficult to infer anything for sure from Undead Labs’ rebranding. It may suggest the course of future games, or it may simply be a matter of marketing to a wider audience. Only time will tell.

Undead Labs

Date Founded

November 23, 2009

Headquarters

Seattle, Washington