Will Nintendo and Sony owners get a chance to play?
State of Decay 2 is coming out for PC and Xbox One soon, but will PS4 and Switch owners get left hanging? State of Decay 2 for Switch and PS4 would make a killing, so surely the game will release on those platforms, right? Well, things aren’t that simple when it comes to the plans for the release of State of Decay 2, and you can read on below to see the full situation.
Undead Labs, the developer of State of Decay 2, has a unique relationship with Microsoft that sets them apart from most other studios. It has entered into an agreement with Microsoft Studios for exclusivity for its games in return for support developing its titles. The reason we haven’t seen the original State of Decay on platforms other than Windows and Xbox is that this contract calls for multi-year exclusivity.
We don’t know just how long this exclusivity period lasts, or just how much ownership Microsoft Studios claims over the State of Decay franchise. However, the question of whether or not State of Decay 2 will come to PS4 likely has a negative answer. The PS4 is the Xbox One’s rival, and Microsoft Studios will do anything in their power to keep their exclusive games exclusive.
On the other hand, State of Decay 2 releasing for Switch is a much more likely scenario. The Nintendo Switch has a unique place in the market right now where it’s not so much directly competing with Sony and Microsoft. That means that out of the PS4 and the Switch that the Switch would be more likely to get a port of State of Decay 2.
However, there’s little incentive for Microsoft to port the game to Switch. They have few exclusives as is, and since the Switch runs on ARM architecture and is significantly less powerful than an Xbox One or PC, the work to make State of Decay 2 run on it isn’t worth the return for them.
It’s highly likely that we’ll only ever see State of Decay 2 on Xbox and PC.
