State of Decay declared 'fastest selling original game ever' on XBLA

The open-world zombie 'em up passed 500,000 sales within its first week, publisher Microsoft Studios has announced, declaring it "the fastest selling original game ever on Xbox Live Arcade." What now? Undead Labs is still working on patches, apparently doesn't have too much to do on the PC edition, and is making a sandbox mode. Beyond that, well, there's still its dream of a full-on zombie MMO, codenamed 'Class4'.

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After selling 250,000 copies in two days, it was pretty clear State of Decay would do pretty well for itself. The open-world zombie 'em up passed 500,000 sales within its first week, publisher Microsoft Studios has announced, declaring it "the fastest selling original game ever on Xbox Live Arcade." The "original" bit is to exclude Minecraft, see.

What now? Undead Labs is still working on patches, apparently doesn't have too much to do on the PC edition, and making a sandbox mode. Beyond that, well, there's still its dream of a full-on zombie MMO, codenamed 'Class4'.

"Fortunately [the PC version has] been in development alongside the Xbox 360 version since Day 1, so we just need to integrate with the Steam platform and add native support for keyboard and mouse control," Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain told Microsoft.

That's more promising than the last mention, which said it wouldn't be coming "by any meaningful use of the word 'soon'." I'd lean more towards the original statement than this new one, though. Plainly Undead's focus is on improving the XBLA version for now though, especially with distracting troubles like the first update not working.

Strain said the studio's listening to fans, and that their needs "will largely guide our development priorities." On top of that sandbox mode, "designed to be a pure survival simulation."

Undead Labs had always planned to make a proper zombie sandbox MMO, releasing State of Decay to test ideas and tech--not to mention raise a little money. The studio has separately told Eurogamer that the dream codenamed 'Class4' is still alive, but far from settled.

"We cannot begin working on Class4 without a greenlight from Microsoft (who owns the IP, as part of the bargain that led to the funding and development of State of Decay) and a mutually agreeable contract," community director Sanya Weathers said.

"We have to agree on where we think the technology is going to be in a few years (since the game will take a few years to develop); we have to agree that we have the same goals; and we have to agree on how we'll collectively run and support the final game ... Those discussions are still in progress."

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 18, 2013 7:05 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, State of Decay declared 'fastest selling original game ever' on XBLA.

    The open-world zombie 'em up passed 500,000 sales within its first week, publisher Microsoft Studios has announced, declaring it "the fastest selling original game ever on Xbox Live Arcade." What now? Undead Labs is still working on patches, apparently doesn't have too much to do on the PC edition, and is making a sandbox mode. Beyond that, well, there's still its dream of a full-on zombie MMO, codenamed 'Class4'.

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      June 18, 2013 7:16 AM

      why is this the first i ever heard of this game, any good?

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        June 18, 2013 7:19 AM

        reading the reviews it sounds AWESOME WTF! http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/05/state-of-decay-review

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        June 18, 2013 7:24 AM

        It is very great, msync. It's pretty much the zombie game I've always wanted. I think it took me about 20 hours to beat it, but I plan on going back and playing again.

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          June 18, 2013 7:40 AM

          M (Mature)

          Blood and Gore
          Drug Reference
          Intense Violence
          Partial Nudity
          Sexual Themes
          Strong Language


          SOLD

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        June 18, 2013 7:45 AM

        Comes out on PC in a few weeks, iirc. So I'm holding off.

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        June 18, 2013 7:50 AM

        I really like it so far, but they have had some issues. There are some annoying bugs, and then the first patch was broken. The second patch should hopefully come out this week and combine the first and second patches together. I'm not going to play any more until the patch comes out.

        The game has some stuff that happens even when you are logged out (resource consumption, people dying) which the patches tone way down. The bug that is biting me now is that nobody is using facilities at my base (like the watch tower).

        I'd definitely recommend it, but keep an eye out for the patch.

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      June 18, 2013 7:45 AM

      I keep trying to like it, but the performance is so awful it makes me not want to play it. Better off waiting for the PC version.

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      June 18, 2013 7:45 AM

      PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ PC PLZ

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      June 18, 2013 12:33 PM

      I have been enjoying it. But I really don't care at all about the story. I really just want sandbox mode.

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      June 18, 2013 12:47 PM

      is it out now? how much is it?

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