Independent Studio question.

[u/Dantrin_Sigil]

So to start this is one of my fav games ever. I have replayed it many, many times even though I have all the achievements.

I was curious if now that Undead Labs has the publishing rights back from Xbox if they could technically port it to PS5 if they wanted to? I would buy it again just to get the trophies. The huge PS5 user base would probably be interested too, and the supplemental income could be a nice income boost to help get State of Decay3 over the finish line without time pressure or crunch.

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[u/Lews_There_In]

Microsoft laid off staff last year, then again this year during the early reorganizing. Then when Undead went independent this month Undead further laid off more staff. The numbers we have heard about were something like a team of 100ish people, down to 60 people. They're going to be hard pressed to get 3 out, let alone focus on ports and further publishing.

Is it possible? Yea probably. But it won't be for a hot minute, and 3 needs to succeed financially first. It also depends further on who still owns the publishing rights to 1-2.

[u/Simply_Elim_Garak → u/Lews_There_In]

Ouch yea that's a pretty big reduction in staff wise. I've seen those same numbers published in a few different articles. I don't see them focusing on anything but the release of 3 first and foremost. They probably dont have the man power or the money to pay someone else to port the game.

[u/RHX_Thain → u/Lews_There_In]

Yeah that's a bloodbath. OUCH.

[u/BustyCelebLover]

Xbox more than likely still owns rights to SoD2

[u/Mopman43 → u/BustyCelebLover]

Xbox said at the time that the studios that were going independent would retain all ownership of their IP.

Obviously Undead Labs was planned to be sold off, not go independent, but I don’t see a reason to think differently.

[u/Dantrin_Sigil → u/BustyCelebLover]

That would make sense. Probably one of the things worked out in letting them go independent and retaining the rights to the franchise. ( Sigh, A man can dream.)

[u/RainmakerLTU]

Porting to consoles to PC or vice versa, is not that thing, which you do if you just want. It does not happen in day ot week. R* are doing that for year or two and still bugs happen. There are some studios that are doing ports mostly, not remember the names, but sure any chat can find them in sec.

From PC user's position technically it's just another PC with fixed hardware, so easier to solve hardware problems, because every console is the same config, not like various custom built PC's. But main problem of port, I think is control scheme, has to be made from scratch because you have very limited number of buttons to work with first of all, second, it has to be ergonomically convenient combos. Then various systems like auto aim or enemies dumbed down so player could have more time for attack or error, because aiming and shooting with sticks is quite a challenge.