State of Decay 3 was announced one year ago during an Xbox Games Showcase event, confirming what Microsoft studio Undead Labs was currently working on. Since then, little news has been shared regarding what's likely to be another open-world survival game. Fans are hungry for new information about State of Decay 3, which has led to discovering what could be an exciting new detail. A job listing at Undead Labs hints that State of Decay 3 will be built on Unreal Engine 5.
The job listing comes from Undead Labs' listing on the BambooHR website. The specific job in question is for a contract Sound Designer who would join the State of Decay 3 team in Seattle, Washington. One line in the job listing mentions implementing audio through "Blueprints (UE5)," which rather speaks for itself. Blueprint is Unreal Engine's visual scripting system and can be used for a wide variety of functionality in a game even without coding experience. It's a branding carried over from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.
RELATED: Predicting State of Decay 3's Release Date
As for what State of Decay 3 potentially using Unreal Engine 5 would mean to players, it's simply a general idea that State of Decay 3 should be a meaningful step forward from State of Decay 2. State of Decay 2 was already a major step forward from the original game built on Unreal Engine 4. Unreal Engine 5 would hopefully allow Undead Labs to further explore its potential.
With that said, Unreal Engine 5 isn't necessarily as big of a step forward as some previous iterations of Unreal or other engines may have been. That doesn't mean State of Decay 3 won't have significant improvements, of course. However, many of the biggest feature focuses of Unreal Engine 5, like virtualized geometry and dynamic real-time global illumination, don't necessarily fit with the technical limitations of an open-world survival game.
Fans of the State of Decay franchise have likely already seen the new cinematic trailer for State of Decay 3. And while cinematic trailers don't typically mean much when it comes to in-game visuals, it's still a very impressive trailer. Fans are likely to expect improvements, particularly for the Xbox Series X/S generation of consoles.
Ultimately, however, whether or not State of Decay 3 is running on Unreal Engine 5 remains unclear. Expectations put in a job listing may not be entirely reflective of the projects actually ongoing at Undead Labs. Still, with State of Decay 2 running on Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5 being a relatively small step forward, it wouldn't be a surprise.
State of Decay 3 is currently in development.
MORE: Video Games That Should Be Remade in Unreal Engine 5
Source: BambooHR (via Klobrille)
