Six years after its announcement, State of Decay 3 is finally about to be playable. Undead Labs has confirmed its first beta test is nearly ready — and PC players will be the first through the door. The announcement came via the studio’s official Discord: “we’re putting the finishing touches on our Beta build. Expect to hear more from us over the next few days about exact timing.”
The beta marks the first time players can jump into the action since the alpha version rolled out. The first access goes to PC owners, with Xbox and PlayStation consoles following in the future — and per KitGuru, an exact date could land within days. This is not an open beta: you’ll need to sign up through the State of Decay 3 playtest website, enter your date of birth, select “sign up with Discord” and authorize access. Once you’re on the waiting list, you’ll receive confirmation — and an invite, if you’re lucky.
State of Decay 3 takes place years after the initial outbreak, with the series’ largest map ever, a shared-world multiplayer mode for up to four friends, and community-building across multiple settlements. It’s expected in 2027 for PC, PS5 and Xbox consoles.
From Xbox Tentpole to Independent Survivor
The beta arrives at the end of a turbulent chapter for Undead Labs. The Seattle studio successfully disentangled itself from Xbox in July 2026 amid what Kotaku calls “a messy reset of Microsoft’s gaming division” — a deal to sell to Splash Damage ultimately fell through, so the studio arranged financing for a management buyout instead. Like Ninja Theory’s collapsed agreements, it’s another reminder of how roughly Xbox’s restructuring has treated its studios. The buyout vehicle is called Full Measure, and Undead Labs will be employee-owned, with stock issued to staff in the coming weeks.
Studio head Philip Holt has been candid about the shift. “Inside of first party, the idea for State of Decay has always been that given proper support, it could ascend to tentpole status alongside some of the biggest brands inside Xbox,” he told The Game Business. “As an independent company, we have to make sure that we can survive and that we have a durable cost structure that’s going to not only get us through launch, but we’ll be supported by the revenue that we produce.” He also explained why the game was revealed so early, back at E3 2020: “I didn’t think Microsoft was done being acquisitive… I was a little worried about getting swallowed up or divested before we had a chance to present to the world what we were working on. So, it was a bit of a marker on the table.”
One thing hasn’t changed: despite the split and a new, still-unnamed publisher, State of Decay 3 remains a day-one Game Pass title — a platform Holt credits with helping the franchise reach 25 million players. For a series many feared was lost in the Xbox shuffle, a beta invite is about to start arriving in inboxes. It’s worth signing up.