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.”
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.
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.