Gears of War studio helping with Unreal Engine 5 on State of Decay 3

Undead Labs is developing State of Decay 3 in Unreal Engine 5, and Gears of War studio The Coalition is helping them with it.

That’s according to Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty, who revealed the new information on the Major Nelson podcast (via Wccftech). The acquisition spree that led to the formation of Xbox Game Studios also brought with it a ton of collaboration between the studios in the form of “summits,” Booty said. One of those collaborations is apparently The Coalition bringing its Unreal expertise to its fellow Xbox studio in Vancouver.

Booty said on the podcast: “You mentioned Undead Labs, they’re working with The Coalition up in Vancouver, our Gears of War studio, using some of the technology around Unreal Engine 5 and some of the stuff that’s been in Gears of War before to bring that into State of Decay 3.”

We have no idea what that means for State of Decay 3 in terms of gameplay tangibles. (Maybe State of Decay 3 will have a robust cover system.) Still, we have gotten glimpses of The Coalition’s work in Unreal Engine 5. Back in April, the studio showcased a brief cinematic test running in Unreal Engine 5 on Xbox Series X, and it looked amazing, and The Coalition already knows what it’s doing in terms of graphics. State of Decay 2 already looked pretty good, but—let’s be honest—it was no Gears 5.