The announcement of State of Decay 3 has been around for some time and since the CGI Trailer there was no new image material. According to several anonymous interviews with the website Kotaku, this is, among other things, that Undead Labs, since the purchase has been exposed to Microsoft Management problems.
The Xbox Game Studios will gladly use the “Hands-Off” method as a guide style with your daughter studios, this is meant that you can do the studio in the development of a game, which keeps it properly and interferes as little as possible. This Laissez-Faire guide style is not always effective. In the case of Undead Labs, this obviously has been proven.
The absence of leadership can lead to massive misconduct in a company, for example bullying or sexism . In the interviews, there was talk of women’s opinions just overhearted or as unqualified and that experienced developers were turned off in meetings of decline.
Unfortunately, official interviews with Microsoft have not come about, but there was a statement from Matt Booty on the subject:
“Every studio at Xbox is assigned the resources and leadership, which needs it to grow culturally and improve his skills. As this support looks, varies from studio to studio, but each of them has a direct connection to resources from the HR department of Microsoft outside of their own departments, and the opportunity to work with other studios and form teams to expand their expertise. “
“In addition, all Microsoft employees, including our studio teams, regularly participate in training sessions that treat topics such as harassment, code of conduct for providers and more. Over the past few years, Undead Labs has made some positive changes and we trust in the direction the team with State of Decay 3 is one of our most ambitious Open World games in development. “
The complaints about such behavior have dealt and the HR department of Microsoft has adopted the topic. There have been several personnel changes in recent years at Undead Labs, to leadership positions. According to former developer, a workshop was implemented against sexual harassment, the first in this way.
With these measures, the studio should be brought to the right track and proceed with the development of State of Decay 3. And in a way it belongs to a modern and intercultural studio.
Allegations of bullying and sexism unfortunately occur more frequently in the gaming industry and seem to be an industrial-wide problem. However, affected people are increasingly openly talking about it and so it can be worked on it. These are correct and important steps for the future!
A current developer of Undead Labs added optimistic: “It could be such a cool game and we work with so great people together – and I hope we will not repeat the terrible patterns of behavior of the past few years.”