Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Reaches 18,500
by Dylan Duarte on June 8, 2009 at 10:42 pm
On June 1st, a group was formed on Steam with the purpose of boycotting the upcoming sequel Left 4 Dead 2. That group has reached 18,500 members.
The group claims that releasing the sequel this soon after its predecessor will “split the communities and decrease the quality of multiplayer gaming… The announced content of Left 4 Dead 2 does not warrant a standalone, 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. Therefore, we – the members of this Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott – promise to abstain from the purchase of Left 4 Dead 2 until our requests are addressed.”
If this were any other case, I would be inclined to side with the group. The thought of a sequel this soon does rub me the wrong way. However, I’m willing to make a special exception for Valve, hands-down one of my favorite developers. I trust them not to screw me over, so if they saw fit to make a sequel this soon, I imagine its for good reason.
As far as the group’s claim that the new content doesn’t justify a full sequel, I don’t know if I agree with that. I’m no developer, in fact I’m pretty much dumb as a tack, but things like zombie dismemberment and a melee mechanic seem pretty complex to me. But what do I know? I’m just a writer on the interwebs.
The group asks that Valve continue to release DLC for the first game and launch the sequel as either a discounted expansion or a free download.
I’m curious to know what everyone else thinks of all of this. Thoughts?
 |
|
|
- Will Left 4 Dead Be Left 4 Dead? Valve Says No
- Left 4 Dead 2 Pre-Orders Four Times The Original, Remember That Silly Sequel Boycott?
- Left 4 Dead 2 NOT on PS3?
- Massive Left 4 Dead 2 Demo On Xbox LIVE
- Left 4 Dead 2 Coming to PS3?
- Sessler’s Soapbox: Adam Discusses “What About Me?” Mentality and Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott
- Left 4 Dead half price this weekend
- Left 4 Dead patch adds lobby browser
5 Comments » |
on June 9, 2009 6:31 am
The trouble is with this, most people in the group will still buy L4D2, no matter how much is updated, and how much it costs. ONly the really extreme people will refuse to buy the game.
on June 9, 2009 9:10 am
Oh absolutely. I think this boycott is pointless and partly because of what you just mentioned right there.
on June 9, 2009 1:19 pm
How many game downloads and product sales were there? Now compare that number to that 'large' 18.5k and I think the answer is what Valve thinks of this.
Valve already stated they'd continue to release DLC for the first game anyways, and that's fine by me, but then again, why continue to support the predecessor and actually support the split in community between the two games?
I'm hoping though that what they said at E3 about bringing the first game (and all of it's past and future updates) along inside of the second game. But then this would only make it more logical to release the sequel as DLC, for a lower price for previous owners of L4D1.
But as said in the article, I trust Valve, they make good, long-standing games.
on June 9, 2009 8:11 am
I support the boycott, even though I don’t believe it will be that effective. Breaking promises just isn’t very nice, Valve. :(
on August 7, 2009 7:55 am
After valve gives us free updates to our games boycotters of left 4 dead should be ashamed even to boycott and accused valve of all gamemakers of being “greedy” or “money grabbers” how dare they! even think this, they should be ashamed of themselves and they should just play snap in the corners of a very small room. They didnt even promise that they would make whole new stuff for l4d e.g. new characters. what they did promises is that would not leave l4d which they ARE doing.