Undead Labs and Microsoft Game Studios to Create Zombie-Survival Franchise on Xbox 360
Online Game Developer's Inaugural Open World Title to Be Published by Microsoft Game Studios
SEATTLE – 3 February 2011 – Undead Labs, the premier developer of online world games for console gamers, announced today development of an original zombie-survival franchise in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Game Studios, the inaugural title will be an open world zombie-survival game scheduled to launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game system from Microsoft.
"Undead Labs is thrilled to work directly with Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 players an outstanding zombie-survival franchise," said Jeff Strain, founder of Undead Labs. "Our mission is to create original online games that truly feel at home on the console platform, and Xbox 360 is a fantastic platform for online console gaming. We plan to create an ambitious open world XBLA game and use its gameplay, setting, and technology as the foundation for a full online world game."
Code-named 'Class3', the Xbox LIVE Arcade game is designed to let zombie fans answer the ultimate question: What would you do in the face of the zombie apocalypse? The end is here. Human civilization has been annihilated. The few, scattered survivors must band together, rebuilding civilization in a third- person action game packed with sweet guns, fast cars, hand-to-hand combat, and copious amounts of zombie gore. Players choose where to make their stand, designing and fortifying their settlements, performing daring raids for valuable stores of food and ammunition, and rescuing other playable survivors. The open world develops in real-time, shaped by player actions, with content determined by their choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.
"We are proud to collaborate with Undead Labs on the creation of a new game for Xbox 360," said Matt Booty, General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios. "The Undead Labs team has a successful track record making innovative online games, and we are excited to support them as they bring their experience and talent to Xbox LIVE."
The game is currently under development by Undead Labs' veteran, zombie-loving studio team and additional details will be released throughout the development cycle. For more information, visit undeadlabs.com.
About Undead Labs
Undead Labs is a game development studio dedicated to creating a new class of online world games for console gamers. Founded in 2009 by MMO industry veteran Jeff Strain, Undead Labs is a creative studio built around the most talented-and zombie loving-developers in the industry. Based in Seattle, Washington, the studio's singular focus is creating the definitive zombie-survival franchise for console gamers. The company's inaugural game, currently in development, is an open world zombie-survival game for
Xbox LIVE Arcade, published by Microsoft Game Studios. For more information, visit undeadlabs.com.
World of Warcraft co-creator and MMO veteran Jeff Strain has unveiled his ambitious new project: a zombie-survival game for Xbox Live Arcade that will start out as an open-world action title, but then later evolve into a massively multiplayer online game.
Codenamed Class3, it's being developed by Strain's Undead Labs studio with Microsoft Game Studios handling publishing duties.
The game sees you play as one of the few humans left standing after a zombie outbreak decimates the planet. In true undead apocalypse tradition, you'll need to band together with other survivors in an attempt to stay alive.
However, unlike, say, Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising, the focus will not just be on dispatching wave after wave of brain-hungry mutants.
"This is not going to be a game about running through the streets shooting zombies in the head," studio founder Jeff Strain told Eurogamer.
"There's going to plenty of that, just because that's fun, but that's not enough for us. The key for us is to capture that zombie survival aspect of the world and really answer that question 'What would I do?'"
You'll choose where to make your stand, then design and maintain your settlement, raid stores for supplies and rescue other playable survivors.
Whereas the game will initially launch as a largely offline third person open-world action game, Undead Labs long term strategy is to nudge the IP towards MMO territory.
However, Strain - who was formerly lead programmer on World of Warcraft and founder of Guild Wars studio ArenaNet - told Eurogamer that he's keen to side-step the MMO tag.
"You'll notice we didn't use that word anywhere in the press release," he pointed out.
"The mission of the studio from the very beginning was to take the very best aspects of what we call 'online world games' - and of course that includes MMOs on the PC side of the fence - and really bring that home on console platforms in a way that was very much designed from the ground up, by console gamers for console gamers.
"If I say the word MMO you immediately think of World of Warcraft, and we're really looking at doing something very different from that. We wanted to distill it down to its very essence - we now call it an 'online world game'."
It's an unusual release strategy but Strain insists its the best way for Undead Labs to serve its audience.
"First and foremost we're going to focus on getting a tight, refined game experience that really captures the zombie survival experience," he explained.
"Then we'll use that as a platform - a design platform, a technology platform and most importantly a feedback platform from the people who are actually playing the game - to evolve it into a full online world game."
Strain was cagey on a release time frame, but confirmed the initial game would not be ready this year. Once stage one is complete, the shift to full online status will be even further down the road.
"One of the reasons we're doing this two step process is we want to get the game into your hands a lot more quickly than what we would otherwise have been able to do if we were taking on the full online world to begin with," said Strain.
"One of the things we get to do with Class3 is put all the plumbing in place to make sure we can rapidly scale from the open world game that is Class3 to the online world game that is Class4.
"Our expectation is that by building on the Class3 platform - in terms of the world, the gameplay and the technology - it will take about half the time to create a full online world than it would traditionally take starting from scratch."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-03-zombie-epic-class3-announced-for-xbla
From the Q&A
Will Class4 be a subscription game?
This is of course a lengthy discussion that we’ll need to undertake with our publisher, so I don’t have a definitive answer, but I can give you some insight into the way we currently think about this.
The current dominant business models for online world games — subscriptions and micro-transactions — each solve a set of problems at the cost of creating new ones.
I’ve previously expressed that while the subscription model is not exactly loved by the gaming community, it does have the benefit of being a simple, clear, and above-the-table contract between gamers and the publisher. Each month, the game either earns your business or it doesn’t. The developers have a singular goal: ensure that the game is fun enough to keep people playing. I like the clarity and purity of that model, and I like that it keeps designers doing what designers should be doing: creating fun. On the other hand, subscriptions are yet another monthly bill to pay, which ranks right up there with rent and car payments as an effective joy kill.
Existing micro-transaction models make it easy to get into a game and let you pay as you go, but I’ve also seen them cause game designers to spend their time focusing on things other than making a fun game, such as channeling players through in-game stores or creating escalating pricing structures for in-game items. I also dislike the slippery slope of what is defined as something you purchase versus something that is a core element of the game experience. We see the phrase “free-to-play” kicked around a lot these days, and some of these games are good games, but we all know that nothing is truly free to play; they are simply blurring the line between playing and paying.
Both models have their strengths, but I’m hopeful that we can also find a way to avoid some of the weaknesses. I’ve challenged our designers to think through the concerns I’ve raised with these business models and be ready to work with me on some new ideas. We may not be able to satisfy everyone on this issue, but perhaps we can get close.
Online Game Developer's Inaugural Open World Title to Be Published by Microsoft Game Studios
SEATTLE – 3 February 2011 – Undead Labs, the premier developer of online world games for console gamers, announced today development of an original zombie-survival franchise in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Game Studios, the inaugural title will be an open world zombie-survival game scheduled to launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game system from Microsoft.
"Undead Labs is thrilled to work directly with Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 players an outstanding zombie-survival franchise," said Jeff Strain, founder of Undead Labs. "Our mission is to create original online games that truly feel at home on the console platform, and Xbox 360 is a fantastic platform for online console gaming. We plan to create an ambitious open world XBLA game and use its gameplay, setting, and technology as the foundation for a full online world game."
Code-named 'Class3', the Xbox LIVE Arcade game is designed to let zombie fans answer the ultimate question: What would you do in the face of the zombie apocalypse? The end is here. Human civilization has been annihilated. The few, scattered survivors must band together, rebuilding civilization in a third- person action game packed with sweet guns, fast cars, hand-to-hand combat, and copious amounts of zombie gore. Players choose where to make their stand, designing and fortifying their settlements, performing daring raids for valuable stores of food and ammunition, and rescuing other playable survivors. The open world develops in real-time, shaped by player actions, with content determined by their choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.
"We are proud to collaborate with Undead Labs on the creation of a new game for Xbox 360," said Matt Booty, General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios. "The Undead Labs team has a successful track record making innovative online games, and we are excited to support them as they bring their experience and talent to Xbox LIVE."
The game is currently under development by Undead Labs' veteran, zombie-loving studio team and additional details will be released throughout the development cycle. For more information, visit undeadlabs.com.
About Undead Labs
Undead Labs is a game development studio dedicated to creating a new class of online world games for console gamers. Founded in 2009 by MMO industry veteran Jeff Strain, Undead Labs is a creative studio built around the most talented-and zombie loving-developers in the industry. Based in Seattle, Washington, the studio's singular focus is creating the definitive zombie-survival franchise for console gamers. The company's inaugural game, currently in development, is an open world zombie-survival game for
Xbox LIVE Arcade, published by Microsoft Game Studios. For more information, visit undeadlabs.com.
World of Warcraft co-creator and MMO veteran Jeff Strain has unveiled his ambitious new project: a zombie-survival game for Xbox Live Arcade that will start out as an open-world action title, but then later evolve into a massively multiplayer online game.
Codenamed Class3, it's being developed by Strain's Undead Labs studio with Microsoft Game Studios handling publishing duties.
The game sees you play as one of the few humans left standing after a zombie outbreak decimates the planet. In true undead apocalypse tradition, you'll need to band together with other survivors in an attempt to stay alive.
However, unlike, say, Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising, the focus will not just be on dispatching wave after wave of brain-hungry mutants.
"This is not going to be a game about running through the streets shooting zombies in the head," studio founder Jeff Strain told Eurogamer.
"There's going to plenty of that, just because that's fun, but that's not enough for us. The key for us is to capture that zombie survival aspect of the world and really answer that question 'What would I do?'"
You'll choose where to make your stand, then design and maintain your settlement, raid stores for supplies and rescue other playable survivors.
Whereas the game will initially launch as a largely offline third person open-world action game, Undead Labs long term strategy is to nudge the IP towards MMO territory.
However, Strain - who was formerly lead programmer on World of Warcraft and founder of Guild Wars studio ArenaNet - told Eurogamer that he's keen to side-step the MMO tag.
"You'll notice we didn't use that word anywhere in the press release," he pointed out.
"The mission of the studio from the very beginning was to take the very best aspects of what we call 'online world games' - and of course that includes MMOs on the PC side of the fence - and really bring that home on console platforms in a way that was very much designed from the ground up, by console gamers for console gamers.
"If I say the word MMO you immediately think of World of Warcraft, and we're really looking at doing something very different from that. We wanted to distill it down to its very essence - we now call it an 'online world game'."
It's an unusual release strategy but Strain insists its the best way for Undead Labs to serve its audience.
"First and foremost we're going to focus on getting a tight, refined game experience that really captures the zombie survival experience," he explained.
"Then we'll use that as a platform - a design platform, a technology platform and most importantly a feedback platform from the people who are actually playing the game - to evolve it into a full online world game."
Strain was cagey on a release time frame, but confirmed the initial game would not be ready this year. Once stage one is complete, the shift to full online status will be even further down the road.
"One of the reasons we're doing this two step process is we want to get the game into your hands a lot more quickly than what we would otherwise have been able to do if we were taking on the full online world to begin with," said Strain.
"One of the things we get to do with Class3 is put all the plumbing in place to make sure we can rapidly scale from the open world game that is Class3 to the online world game that is Class4.
"Our expectation is that by building on the Class3 platform - in terms of the world, the gameplay and the technology - it will take about half the time to create a full online world than it would traditionally take starting from scratch."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-03-zombie-epic-class3-announced-for-xbla
From the Q&A
Will Class4 be a subscription game?
This is of course a lengthy discussion that we’ll need to undertake with our publisher, so I don’t have a definitive answer, but I can give you some insight into the way we currently think about this.
The current dominant business models for online world games — subscriptions and micro-transactions — each solve a set of problems at the cost of creating new ones.
I’ve previously expressed that while the subscription model is not exactly loved by the gaming community, it does have the benefit of being a simple, clear, and above-the-table contract between gamers and the publisher. Each month, the game either earns your business or it doesn’t. The developers have a singular goal: ensure that the game is fun enough to keep people playing. I like the clarity and purity of that model, and I like that it keeps designers doing what designers should be doing: creating fun. On the other hand, subscriptions are yet another monthly bill to pay, which ranks right up there with rent and car payments as an effective joy kill.
Existing micro-transaction models make it easy to get into a game and let you pay as you go, but I’ve also seen them cause game designers to spend their time focusing on things other than making a fun game, such as channeling players through in-game stores or creating escalating pricing structures for in-game items. I also dislike the slippery slope of what is defined as something you purchase versus something that is a core element of the game experience. We see the phrase “free-to-play” kicked around a lot these days, and some of these games are good games, but we all know that nothing is truly free to play; they are simply blurring the line between playing and paying.
Both models have their strengths, but I’m hopeful that we can also find a way to avoid some of the weaknesses. I’ve challenged our designers to think through the concerns I’ve raised with these business models and be ready to work with me on some new ideas. We may not be able to satisfy everyone on this issue, but perhaps we can get close.
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