The popularity of zombies has finally reached critical mass in that, its latest manifestation of popularity has seen the announcement of a MMO (massively multiplayer online) being developed for the console market.

But, this is not just any zombie game cash-in, this is a MMO being developed by the newly formed Undead Labs, a Seattle-based development studio created by ex-Blizzard/NCsoft honcho, Jeff Strain. And given the name of the studio, you can bet they take their base craft and (clear) inspiration very, very seriously. Hell, they even cite the use of #2 pencils and lawnmowers as ways of carving through zombie hordes - sounds about right to me.

"Every time I see a good zombie movie with friends, we spend days debating our strategies for surviving the zombie apocalypse," Strain explains on the studio's official site. "The police station, or the supermarket? Garden rake, or staple gun? Bach, or the White Stripes? I'm a game developer, so I'd probably be useless for anything other than ghoul bait, but I'm excited to have the opportunity to build an MMOZ that lets us put those strategies to the test and find out for sure."

There are currently no other details other than the game being in existence and for console only (at this stage), but we'll keep an eye on its development and let you know anything new that crops up.