UK, June 8, 2009 - Fans of 2008 first-person smash Left 4 Dead have reacted strongly to last week's news of a sequel, calling for a boycott to the new game in response to Valve's perceived lack of commitment to the original game.

At the time of writing some 15,000 fans have registered their disdain on a Steam Community Group, (thanks, videogaming24/7) asking that 'Left 4 Dead 2 not be released as a stand-alone, full-priced sequel but as either a free update to Left 4 Dead or an expansion with full compatibility with basic Left 4 Dead owners.'

The news of a sequel for Left 4 Dead goes against Valve's typical practice, wherein titles are often in gestation for long periods and given extensive post-release support.

Valve's VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi reacted to the news in an interview late last week, telling RockPaperShotgun, 'There's more content coming for Left 4 Dead in the fairly near term, that I think will sort of add to this picture and hopefully change some people's opinions of what's happening right now.'

Chet Faliszek, writer of Left 4 Dead 2, concurred with Lombardi in an interview with Videogamer.com, stating, "It was just like, OK, this is big enough that this isn't DLC, we're not going to be able to leak it out. It's a cohesive, single thing. It's Left 4 Dead 2."

According to Faliszek, there are still additional updates coming for the original Left 4 Dead, so the shift of attention to the sequel won't completely leave fans in the dust. "We still have updates coming. Our focus is always on what we're putting in the box, put as much as we can in the box. Let's not worry about: let's save that and not put that in the game. No, let's put that in. And with the five campaigns, all of them out of the box, playable Versus, co-op, Survival and the new mode, there's just a ton of content in there."

Left 4 Dead was one of 2008's highlights, earning a 9.2 when reviewed back in November. The sequel relocates the action to the Deep South, as well as adding frying pans and chainsaws into the mix - which all sounds like an awful lot of fun.

In direct contrast to the L4D2 Boycott Group the L4D2 Enthusiasts group, sporting nearly 700 members at the moment, supports valves release of L4D2. Their main page reads:




Hello all, and welcome to the Left 4 Dead 2 Enthusiasts! I would love to say, thank you all for joining.


Left 4 Dead 2, which is coming out November 17th, is supposed to be a great game. It has;
- 5 new campaigns.
- 4 new characters.
- 3 new special infected.
- 2 new common infected.
- 1 new campaign, where the infection has not hit.
- 20 new weapons.
- New graphics, and so on and so forth.


This really is a respectable sequel to the original game.


This was in response to the L4D 2 Boycott group, because a lot of people were against their opinions. Right now I will say, there is a freedom of speech, and I respect their opinion. But this isn’t just a group created against the L4D2 Boycott group, it’s also a group for Left 4 Dead 2 Enthusiasts.


We have only hit a short milestone in our expansion of players, but we have come a decent way. While the L4D2 Boycott group has around 30,000 members, we have around 588, and growing.


There are a lot of stupid things that the L4D2 Boycott group are complaining about. Here are some to name a few;
- The music played.
- The character design.
- The color of the game, etc…

In my opinion, these are some pretty stupid arguments, where all evidence came from a Left 4 Dead 2 Beta teaser trailer. May I remind you, a beta is not the full finished version of the game.


The Boycott group is also saying things like; “Valve is a greedy company, only releasing L4D2 to get money!”


Okay… Well, guess what? Sequels happen! Lets see, hmm… CoD: World at War, Modern Warfare 2, a new Madden game practical every 9 months, and the list goes on and on… But no one has ever made such a big deal like this in respond to a sequel until now.


Valve is moving forwards. Yes they promised new content for Left 4 Dead, and guess what? They’re releasing it! Left 4 Dead 2 is a game for people who wanted a sequel, who will buy, and enjoy it!


I would also like to say this. From my knowledge, we have done nothing to the L4D2 Boycott group, but yet they seem to make themselves look worse each day by spamming this group. The only point they’re making, is how stupid they look. You know, not sure if you noticed this, but there’s this great invention called the “Delete button”, works well. See, when you post one of you attempted spamming, that probably took who knows how much time you had to make, I can get rid of it in a blink of an eye.


One last thing that I would love to say is; Thank you all for joining, I really appreciate it, I really do! I love the comments, and opinions that you guys have been leaving, and I read every single one of them. I am hoping that you all do your part by spreading the word, and keep this group alive.




Despite their summary of the boycott group either being old (which is doubtful as the l4d2 boycott summary was updated previously to June 8th) or just completely misinformed, the points they did make missed the biggest complaints coming out of the competitive community: lack of balancing in L4D2 due to melee weapons and incendiary ammo, and more important splitting an already fragile competitive community by having all of the casual players switch to L4D2. Oh well, at least they are helping to expand the E-Drama already surrounding this release…