Undead Lab workers report misogyny at the studio, burnout, harassment, and more
It’s been nearly two years since Undead Labs revealed State of Decay 3, and we haven’t heard much about the game since. Though it’s been speculated that there have been some development issues behind the scenes, it now appears that the problems at the studio run much deeper than that. Reports claim that Undead Labs has a history sexism, mistreatment and burnout.
A recently published Kotaku ReportThe outlet dives into the allegations against Undead Labs made by former and current employees. The outlet spoke with twelve people who shared stories that Undead Labs was a toxic work environment. The handful of years since the studio was acquired by Microsoft are described as being particularly bad, as Microsoft’s “hands-off” approach facilitated bad practices at Undead Labs.
“The culture the studio had up until recently was not the most hospitable for anyone that was not a white cishet man,” one of the anonymous developers told Kotaku. “It’s improved in the last six months or so. The studio hired a lot diverse talent that it could not support. [in the past].”
There are also examples of poor management practices, such as workers being moved around within different teams, making it difficult to maintain consistency among groups. “Every couple of months, after a milestone, teams would be completely broken up and shuffled around into new teams.” The report also states that there were instances in which QA workers were told not to report on certain bugs so that there would appear to be progression in State of Decay 3’s development.
The news from Undead Labs is sadly all too familiar to the videogame industry. In recent years, many studios have had to deal with similar situations. We’ll be sure to update this story with any potential new information.
