State of Decay studio Undead Labs faces allegations of sexism and bullying

pcgamer.com:

The open-world zombie survival game State of Decay 3 was announced in July 2020, yet according to a Kotaku report yesterday the game remains stuck in pre-production as the studio has struggled with mismanagement, burnout, and workplace toxicity following its 2018 acquisition by Microsoft.

Kotaku's story is based on 12 anonymous interviews with current and former employees, so it's important to note that this constellation of feedback, though upsetting, may not tell a complete picture of the studio's state or history.

Undead Labs has doubled in size since the Microsoft buyout, according to the report, but the departure of studio founder Jeff Strain, who left in 2019, left a real leadership void. While some employees initially worried that Microsoft would change the studio's internal culture, it actually took an extremely hands-off approach, ultimately to the detriment of the company, according to one former employee. «Our collapse came from within, and we could have used [Microsoft’s] help,» they said.

The lack of clear direction during early pre-production on State of Decay 3 was exacerbated by problems at the studio. Developers split off into «strike teams» to prototype different new features, but there was little communication or oversight, and team members were routinely shuffled around, so there was no consistency in direction. One former employee said management would ignore QA concerns in favor of showing «artificial progress» on the game. 

«Milestones consisted of a pile of disjointed features that were less about making a fun video game and more about checking off a list,” a former developer told the site.

Worse, nine of the former employees interviewed for the report also complained about misogyny, bullying and