May want to take this one with a grain of salt because anything is possible. In the last couple of years there have been rumors regarding a third installment for the Left 4 Dead franchise. One of the more recent ones occurred in January when an HTC executive mentioned it in a keynote. Later he posted on twitter that it was personal speculation. The folks over at DSOG have been tracking developments with this potential third game. They spotted an interview from IGN with Valve’s Chris Remo. Now we have an official statement from Valve to clarify on these rumors.
“We did briefly explore some Left 4 Dead next-gen opportunities a few years ago, but we are absolutely not working on anything Left 4 Dead-related now, and haven’t for years.”
They go on to specify what that actually means. At one point they were working on developing their Source 2 engine. This is the same engine used to develop the newly released VR title Half-Life Alyx. It does make sense that often a developer may recycle assets while working on new projects. Just look at this story which shows some history of recent Star Wars projects.
“We used parts of a Left 4 Dead level as the first bit of level geometry to start building in Source 2, so a bit of that got out. It was essentially a rendering test, and people thought that meant we were working on Left 4 Dead.”
To be or not to be
So perhaps this is the last nail in the coffin for Left 4 Dead. Perhaps not. Game developers often have long term strategies for their franchises. It is absolutely true of the larger studios whose stables continue to grow with IP’s. Many fans of a franchise have seen a game sit in virtual oblivion only to be revived years or decades later with new technologies. Only time will tell.