Left 4 Dead 2 Boycotters reaches 25000, Valve responds.

With now over 25,000 members, the steam community group L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2) has gotten the attention of Left 4 Dead developer/publisher Valve, and they have responded, vowing to give continued support to the original title.

The concerns behind the boycott are as follows:

• -The release of Left 4 Dead 2 as a stand-alone sequel will split the communities and decrease the quality of multi-player gaming.
• -The announced content of Left 4 Dead 2 does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead.
• -Left 4 Dead has not yet received the support and content which Valve has repeatedly stated will be delivered.
• -The release of Left 4 Dead 2 will make Left 4 Dead an obsolete purchase and inferior piece of software after only one year since release.

I must admit I am surprised at the amount of outrage behind this, but thankfully it appears that Valve has taken notice of this and will not let the original L4D fans be left out in the dark.  Kotaku recently got in touch with Valve and got the following response:

“Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve. But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn’t – it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago,” said Valve president Gabe Newell in a statement to Kotaku. “We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community.”

“E3 is a trade event where developers and publishers come to announce new games for the coming year. L4D2 — like any new product — requires an appearance at the show,” Newell said.

Valve says, it will continue to support the original with continued updates.

“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.”

Whether that will allay fears that Left 4 Dead will be left behind by some community members remains to be seen, but Valve notes that it hasn’t abandoned the original.

“In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4×4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1,” Newell says. “We also agree with our customers that there needs to be an interoperability plan for players of L4D1 and L4D2, as multi-player games are driven by the cohesiveness of their community.”

I’d say this is good news for all you humans out there trying to survive from the blood thirsty rabies infected zombies.

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