State of Decay 3 reminds us that it's still in development with a sad new trailer that mostly just makes me think of Dead Island

Four years after it was announced with a frosty teaser, Microsoft served up a brand-new State of Decay 3 trailer at today's Xbox Showcase—which, I'm sorry to say, did not include any indication as to when it might actually be out.

There's a powerful element of the famously sad Dead Island trailer (you know the one) in this new State of Decay 3 teaser, and a little bit of a narrative twist near the end—which honestly I think is a little bit sad in itself. Does anyone ever stop to think about who these people were, what they had, what they did, and what they lost before the whole braaaains thing? The needs of survival has a way of focusing attention on the moment, fair enough, but I think it's a perspective that could stand to be examined a little more.

Although the focus on survival seems to be a bit off here. As senior editor and PC Gamer survival pro Chris Livingston noted while we watched the trailer, that guy was carrying all sorts of useful equipment—why did she grab his toy dinosaur?

Back to matter at hand: It's a nice trailer but functionally, just a reminder that State of Decay 3 was in fact announced at one point and is still in development. There's no mention of a release target, and currently the State of Decay 3 page at stateofdecay.com still carries nothing more than the 2020 announcement trailer. Hopefully this teaser means more information on the game will be forthcoming fairly soon, but for now we're simply left to wait.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.