Things are allegedly dicey over at Undead Labs.
Another day, another report of trouble development. This time, it’s allegations of issues plaguing State of Decay 3 developer Undead Labs.
Kotaku reports that the studio, one owned by Microsoft, is facing allegations of sexism and mismanagement.
In the latter stream, staff claim that Undead Labs “didn’t even know what [the game] was” when first announced publically back in 2020. Further allegations state that pre-production on the sequel started in 2018 and was so poorly managed it took several reorganisations to truly begin.
When it comes to allegations of sexism, the report claims that female employees at Undead Labs were ignored or frequently blamed during meetings, and were subject to sexist remarks as well.
In a statement to Kotaku, Undead’s Philip Holt says he believes the studio has turned a corner.
“I recognise that some of our employees, current and former, have shared that their experiences at the Lab weren’t always positive,” Holt said.
“Our past culture does not exemplify who we are now, nor who we want to become. We have seen a lot of change in the last few years: we have an entirely new leadership team, including new HR Director and department in 2021; hired about 75 employees since the beginning of the pandemic; and have transformed the demographic make-up of our team.”
Holt claims that the work means Undead has “already seen that our ongoing cultural transformation is creating a better workplace for the team, which leads to better games for our community.”
We’ll have more on State of Decay 3 as it’s announced.
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