Philip Holt, studio head at Undead Labs, revealed that the 2020 reveal trailer for State of Decay 3 was a pre-rendered concept created before the game existed. He stated in a recent interview that the project was then just a Word document with a team of fewer than a dozen people. Holt noted that elements like zombie deer from the trailer will not appear in the final game.
State of Decay 3 debuted with a cinematic trailer at the 2020 Xbox Series X/S showcase, featuring no gameplay but hinting at expanded narrative in the zombie survival series. Undead Labs' Philip Holt confirmed in an interview with Sunny Games, following the announcement of a May 2026 alpha playtest, that the trailer from Blur Studio represented early concepts rather than actual development progress. “So that trailer, there really wasn’t a game or game team when we were working on that trailer, like, it was so early,” Holt said. “You know, the game was in a Word document.” Holt explained that while some ideas from the trailer may carry over, others, such as zombie animals including a featured deer, were scrapped as the team grew and development advanced. Developers told Kotaku in 2022 that Microsoft requested hype trailers from studios that year, surprising teams unprepared for announcements. One State of Decay 3 developer said at the time, “We didn’t want to announce the game because we didn’t even know what it was at that point.” Such practices echo past incidents, like Microsoft's pre-rendered Phantom Dust trailer for Xbox One, which went undeveloped. The 2020 event also previewed titles like Rare’s canceled Everwild and Playground Games’ Fable, now set for a fall release.