Undead Labs goes independent from Microsoft with employee ownership, studio head says he was 'irresponsibly transparent' about layoffs

State of Decay developer Undead Labs has bought itself out from Microsoft through a company called Full Measure and moved to employee ownership, a process studio head Philip Holt says led to a significant number of people leaving. Holt said he was irresponsibly transparent with staff during Xbox's reset, telling them early that job losses were likely so they were prepared on the day of layoffs. He said the studio has made some changes to State of Decay 3 after the layoffs, but the project was not radically rescoped and is still set for release in 2027.