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Left 4 Dead 2: Will it be a boom or a major bust?
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The Left 4 Dead 2 rage between boycotters and developers is beginning to slow down. In an attempt to make sense of it all, I decided to fire the argument back up. On one hand, their are the boycotters who are trying their best to push for more development and trying to prolong the release date for L4D2, while on the other hand, Valve developers and spokesmen are trying their best to comfort and soothe their audience.
Ultimately, is Valve trying to turn us into mindless consumer happy zombies that will gladly feast on regurgitated content, or is this a truly independent product that will deliver a strong sequel while maintaining the brilliance of the first title?
I recently received a pertinent multi-post comment from a reader named Hyper. From a server owner perspective, he seems to be getting hit pretty hard from the backlash and Valve's lack of downloadable content.
One disturbing trend I have seen is the daily cancellation of L4D servers. Since the 'Survival Pack' the company I work for has seen a 70% increase in server cancellations of servers that service Central North America and the West Coast. That number increases daily... The second spike was right after the news about L4D2. That was about 20% of the servers.
As promised from Valve, they said they'd be delivering a variety of downloadable content to insure a prolonged lifespan of Left 4 Dead 1. So far it seems as though the depth has been fairly lacking, and even what we have seen (Survival Pack & Mod Tools) hasn't been enough to even match the attention span of a two year child pumped up on Pixie Sticks and Coca-Cola Slurpees.
In a conversation between Kotaku and Valve president, Gabe Newall, states that L4D fans shouldn't worry too much about the soon release date of LFD2.
In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4x4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1... 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.
The countdown until the November 14 release date is nearly upon us, and when these last updates will finally reach us is anyone's guess.
To return to the original question, will Left 4 Dead 2 be a smash or will it flop because of all the resentment and protest it is receiving from its fans?
To be quite frank, regardless of the changes and improvements developers make, it will be a smash hit. If it mirrors the first one, which it will, people will buy it. Valve will probably receive a bit of criticism for making it too identical to the original, but the fact of the matter is that they found a formula for a popular game, and it works.
In response to Hyper, I broke it down for him in this manner. About 3 million copies sold in comparison to 35,000 known protesters is just a fraction. Although it is a voice that requires attention, and it will make a dent in sales, the fact is it isn't enough to deter Valve from releasing a sequel to an already great game. Not to mention, how many of those 35,000 people will actually not buy Left 4 Dead 2?
For more info: Steam Boycott Group, Kotaku Interview, Hyper's Comments
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