Valve's announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 actually riled a few feathers in their community. Some fans were dismayed with the prospect of shelling another $50-60 for a standalone sequel in just about a year after fans purchased the first title. Outside of obvious concerns over getting short charged on their investment, naysayers also feared the sequel would threaten to split and dilute the existing Left 4 Dead community. Valve has already argued that the content promised in Left 4 Dead 2 warranted a full release as a separate game versus an incremental update for the first title. Now Valve director Gabe Newell himself steps forth to assure fans that Valve remains committed to long term support for their titles, including Left 4 Dead.In astatementto Kotaku:
"Some in the community are concerned that the announcement of L4D2 implied a change in our plans for L4D1. We aren't changing our plans for L4D1."In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4x4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1. We also agree with our customers that there needs to be an interoperability plan for players of L4D1 and L4D2, as multiplayer games are driven by the cohesiveness of their community."
While Newell acknowledged that a yearly release schedule for new games will be quite new for Valve, he explains that Left 4 Dead 2 fit the bill as the product announcement expected from companies showcasing at E3. The coming months ought to show just how much steam (pun not intended) Left 4 Dead will really be running on.
