The game launches as an Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Game Pass title on May 22, with the standard edition priced at $30. For $50 though, you'll get the ultimate edition, which includes access four days ahead of general release, plus two add-on packs: "Independence" and "Daybreak" (both of which will be available at a later release date). The ultimate edition also includes a download token for a bonus copy of the console version of State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition. Pre-orders for both editions opens today, and if you get your order in before May 21 you'll also get some exclusive in-game goodies.

"Our goal is to build a long-term relationship with the State of Decay community and to foster deeper experiences with the franchise," says Aaron Greenberg, general manager of games marketing at Microsoft. Indeed, it's a franchise that could well lend itself to the kind of set-up developer Telltale has with its Game of Thrones and Walking Dead franchises, where narrative-based games are released episodically. Microsoft has clearly put a lot of investment into this release, so it's not impossible that it'll go on to form the foundations of some kind of game-as-service or platform, as Spencer has previously suggested.