If you were buzzing about the proposition of getting a Left 4 Dead game any time soon, be it VR or otherwise, Valve says it’s definitely not working on any Left 4 Dead-related IP, and it hasn’t for years.
Rumors that Valve was pursuing a VR adaptation of the Left 4 Dead franchise have been circulating since well before the company unveiled Half-Life: Alyx late last year, if only as a hypothetical next step the company might take in building out its famed three ‘full VR games’ first promised back in 2017.
As early as 2016, code relating to both Left 4 Dead and Half-Life was found in Valve-built VR demos, making the L4D franchise the next obvious choice.
IGN obtained the following statement from Valve that puts a pretty tight lid on the prospects of getting a Left 4 Dead game however—at least for now:
“We’ve seen rumors to this effect for the last couple of months,” a Valve spokesperson tells IGN. “We did briefly explore some Left 4 Dead next gen opportunities a few years ago. But we are absolutely not working on anything L4D related now, and haven’t for years.”
[irp posts=”92410″ name=”Index Sold Out in all 31 Regions, Valve working hard” to Meet Demand Ahead of ‘Half-Life: Alyx'”]
The reasoning behind the public denial? HTC Vive China president Alvin Wang Graylin teased a few slides from a talk held by the company late last week in Beijing, one of which states that Half-Life: Alyx and “LFD3 (sic) will drive consumer and AAA studio interest” over the course of 2020.
FYI, the #L4D3 mention is only a personal speculation, and all predictions are my own, and not official view of @HTC.
— Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) (@AGraylin) January 17, 2020
Graylin dispelled the contents of the slide later that day as personal speculation, however since Valve worked closely with HTC to develop the original 2016-era Vive headset, it seemed to many as a tacit confirmation of a bonafide VR entry in the Left 4 Dead franchise, which we now know doesn’t have any merit.
Whether Valve has a Left 4 Dead VR game in its sights is another question entirely. With a supposed bank of assets from their earlier attempt at reportedly making, and subsequently scrapping Left 4 Dead 3 in 2017, there may still be some incentive to push forward with a L4D VR game, however it may take the success of Half-Life: Alyx to get the studio to fully commit.
