State of Decay 3 reveal trailer wasn’t reflective of the actual game, says studio head

Studio head of State of Decay 3 developer Philip Holt has confirmed the 2020 reveal trailer was based entirely on “a concept” for the game, and a major inclusion in said trailer won’t actually make it into the game: zombie animals.

This interview, conducted by content creator Sunny Games, is a roughly 48-minute catch up with State of Decay 3 after a period of mostly radio silence. It comes shortly after the reveal of an alpha playtest for the game popped up during the Easter weekend.

When asked about the 2020 announcement trailer, and the elements featured within including zombified animals, Holt said: “No zombie deer! There really wasn’t a game team when we were working on that trailer, it was so early. There were like four – five people, the game was in a word document.

“The trailer was done by Blur. It was all pre-rendered. It represented a concept, our thoughts at the time of what might be cool to explore in State of Decay 3. And as we’ve had a chance to build a team and get going on the game, some of those elements I think are going to persist in the game that we deliver and some of those things are just, like, we’re not doing zombie animals.”

Previous reporting in 2022 claimed that Microsoft was pushing for trailers from its developers to build hype around the next console generation, and this trailer took the development team at Undead Labs by surprise.

This interview comes after a refreshed push by Undead Labs and State of Decay 3, after the development team has been largely radio silent for a few years now. Undead Labs did release a cinematic trailer for State of Decay 3 back in 2024 to keep fans keen, but aside from that, not much on the game has been discussed!

There were also reports that State of Decay 3 would be joining Gears of War: E-Day as a PS5 release, something which has yet to be confirmed with the announcement of the game’s alpha test.