Hello fellow survivors. (It’s been a long time since I last typed that…)

It’s traditional to close out the year with the phrase, “Happy new year!” Usually we say that speculatively, as in, “Boy I sure do hope we have a happy year next year!” But sometimes we might have a reason to actually believe it will be a happy year next year. For those of us here at Undead Labs, we’re looking at a ton of hard work next year (multiple metric tons of tons, more realistically), some late-night panics, a few “oh my god oh my god” meetings, a sprinkling of bug-count out-to-the-woodshed sessions courtesy of our QA team, and some assorted last-minute design or tech change freak outs. And all that can mean only one thing: we’re driving toward the release of State of Decay 2 next year, and that will make it a very happy year indeed.

In the meantime, we have a little gift for you: the annual holiday wallpaper. We hope we can make your devices a little more undead this season.

Plenty of people have asked us to give the community the gift of the SOD2 release date. We can’t do that just yet, but here’s what we can tell you: The release date will be revealed, along with gameplay, systems, and so much more, at E3 2017. So pace yourselves, mark your calendars, and get ready to party with us this June.

Some of you have been here since we first started talking about what would become State of Decay back in 2010. Many more of you joined our passionate State of Decay player community after the release of the game in 2013, or the Year One edition in 2014. You’ve played our contests, posted your hopes and wishes for the sequel, helped new players, shared your greatest gameplay moments via Twitch, and generally carried the torch for us through the quiet years between the latest release of State of Decay and now — and for that, we can truly never thank you enough. I’m happy to tell you those quiet years are at an end. Huge wheels are in motion, and I can assure you 2017 is going to be a very exciting year to be a State of Decay fan.

So, cheers from all of us at Undead Labs to all of you. Oh, and Happy New Year. For real.