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No Multiplayer For State Of Decay
Undead Labs has achieved great success with it's open world zombie sim, State of Decay. One thing that players have been waiting for was a cooperative mode that was planned for inclusion, but later delayed to speed up release. We've learned that the update isn't coming.
The decision is based on a re-evaluation of the time it would take to fully implement an enjoyable co-op experience. The team had originally estimated a six month development cycle, but has since realized that it would take closer to nine.
Additionally, Undead Labs isn't sure that it would meet the expectations that the community has set for it, but will be working on including multiplayer in the sequel. Based on comments in the official forums in response to the announcement, players seem to be taking the news well.
Other top requests from the community include a sandbox mode and a spear, which upon reflection seems like a pretty darn good zombie-fighting weapon. Also, we had reported on problems with the title's first patch. Those issues have since been fixed with another update.
[Source: Undead Labs via Joystiq]
Our Take
Every time I hear about a developer choosing not to include "check the box" multiplayer, I get a little bit more excited about our future. This is a sentiment I've heard a number of times echoed recently by publishers, including Bethesda and 2K Games. Bioshock Infinite did just fine as a single-player title, and 2K Marin's The Bureau: XCOM Declassified won't have a tacked-on multiplayer mode.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that online play is one bullet point that publishers are starting to realize isn't always viewed as a positive.
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