Valve Pledges Support For Left 4 Dead

Valve’s Gabe Newell has responded to fan concerns about the release of Left 4 Dead 2 so soon after the first game. As we reported last week, some fans have joined together to boycott the sequel as they feel there is insufficient new content in the new game to warrant a new title and fear that support for the first game will cease.In a statement to Kotaku, Newell stressed that the company will not abandon the original game:”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,” he said.”We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community.””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.”He went on to outline some of what L4D1 players can expect to see in the coming months:”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,” he said.”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.”We had a chance to play Left 4 Dead 2 at E3 this year, read our preview and check out our interview with Valve’s Doug Lombardi.