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Undead Labs, developer of State of Decay 3, confirmed it has become an independent, employee-owned studio after splitting from Xbox, a transition that resulted in "significant" layoffs. Despite the upheaval, Microsoft confirmed that State of Decay 3 will still launch day one on Xbox Game Pass, with Undead Labs reaching an agreement with a new publisher to keep development alive. The news offers a rare bright spot amid Xbox's broader wave of studio closures and job cuts this week, showing that not every affected studio is being shut down entirely.