State of Decay scraps plans for co-op

State of Decay's apocalyptic open world will remain a lonely one. Undead Labs today posted on its official forums that plans to add a co-op mode to the best-selling-short-of-Minecraft XBLA title were dropped in favor of a more realistic schedule.

Undead Labs originally hoped to include a co-op mode at launch, but decided to push back multiplayer support after launch to get the game out in time. At this point it would be too great of an undertaking for the original title.

"It's not simply a matter of adding the technology, but also redesigning core game systems to support multiple players, and then adding new content designed for people to play together," executive producer Jeff Strain wrote. "It's easy to imagine how all that would come together--as many have said, the game is practically begging for it--but retrofitting the game to add that experience would take the rest of this year, and well into the next."

The studio is in talks with Microsoft about future plans for DLC, title updates, and potential sequels. A PC version is still coming along, but not "soon," according to an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Strain promised that "multiplayer will be the absolute heart of any future State of Decay games."