Lifeline is the first story-based DLC for zombie survival hit State of Decay, following the sandbox mode added in the Breakdown content. Lifeline switches you to the role of the military in the post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world, but only scratches the surface of what Undead Labs wants to do with its franchise.
Multiplayer is undoubtedly the most-asked for feature by fans for State of Decay, but we should not expect it to be added to the original game. The developers have made it clear that this just isn't possible--but that doesn't mean a State of Decay multiplayer title isn't coming eventually. In fact, shifting the experience from single-player will be a core tenant of the franchise moving forward.
Undead Labs has a multi-year, multi-title deal agreed with Microsoft Studios, so more entries in the series are inevitable. The developers have definitely learned from the high demand for multiplayer, and will include it up front in these future releases.
"We have long-term ambitions for the franchise," said Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain in an interview with Polygon following the Lifeline demo at PAX. "Wherever we take this, in terms of sequels, multiplayer will be built in from the beginning."
The zombie game was a hit on Xbox Live Arcade (and later PC), and the small development studio secured its future by agreeing a deal with Microsoft, which Strain speaks of positively.
"My experience with our team and Microsoft has been that it is built from very passionate, very smart people whose hearts are in the right place," he said. "When you look at some of the things we want to do going forward, if you want to be on the console platform, it takes some different thinking about the console business model, about the live infrastructure and network infrastructure that traditionally you associate with the console experience."
"We're going to have to have somebody who's a partner working with us on the technology to make all that happen. And so working directly with Microsoft is going to be a huge win going forward for that."
The partnership makes sense for Undead Labs, which stated in its initial press release that it was created to create a zombie MMO. Microsoft's Xbox Live Cloud Computer technology and Xbox Live infrastructure make sense for what Undead Labs want to do going forward, and I'm excited for State of Decay's future.
