Earlier today, I posted how State of Decay will not be getting co-op or multiplayer, and expressed my frustration with the decision from Undead Labs. But now for some good news. Speaking on the game's official forums, executive producer Jeff Strain stated that all future State of Decay games will have "co-op and multiplayer at the heart" and that the team wanted to add multiplayer to State of Decay, but technical constraints prevented them from doing so.

“That retrofitting would have extended to the multiplayer support as well, and we estimated it could have delayed release of the game by as much as half a year,” he said. “It [cutting multiplayer] was a painful decision, but a necessary one given the realities of our team size and project budget.

“We know co-op is the most requested addition to State of Decay, and we’ve also continued to hope it might be a possibility after release. Unfortunately, after reevaluating it over the past few weeks, we believe our original estimate of six months is optimistic; the actual time is probably closer to nine months.

“We could ‘check the box’ and shoehorn multiplayer in sooner than that, but it wouldn’t be a great experience, and certainly not one we’d be proud of. It’s not simply a matter of adding the technology, but also redesigning core game systems to support multiple players, and then adding new content designed for people to play together.

“It’s easy to imagine how all that would come together – as many have said, the game is practically begging for it – but retrofitting the game to add that experience would take the rest of this year, and well into the next. Worse, it would preclude our ability to offer any other kind of support for the game, including Title Updates and DLC.

“We want to see a multiplayer State of Decay as badly as you do, but it’s not feasible to retrofit it into the existing game.”

Well this is good to hear, but I am still saddened that we won't see multiplayer in the game. At least a simple co-op mode where you and a friend could defend against zombie hordes would be great. Let's hope they release the sandbox mode for the game soon. (Update: The sandbox mode may be released as DLC) Honestly, the biggest reason I wanted multiplayer in the game was to experience having to not only survive against the zombies in the world, but other players as well. It adds a lot of difficulty to the game, knowing that at any moment, you could encounter another human player. Not to mention how much fun it would be to have battles between many different players and zombies at the same time. I do understand the technical constraints of the game though, as even without multiplayer the game still has stuttering issues, especially while you're driving. Guess we will have to wait for the next one...

What do you think about future State of Decay games having co-op and multiplayer? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Posted by George K

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