Valve’s games are among the most discussed and speculated in the industry, and the company works hard to protect their privacy. For the most part, they’ve been successful at that, keeping a lot under wraps from their fans. And yet, some time ago, we saw a leak which practically confirmed the existence of “Left 4 Dead 3” among Valve’s projects.
The studio itself confirmed that there has been at least some work on that front at one point, when they showed one of the original “Left 4 Dead 2” levels remade in the new Source 2 Engine. This seemed to align with previous reports that the company was working on the game, as indicated by its presence in their internal bug tracking databases.
This was spotted by watchful fans during a tour of the studio, but some still suspect that it could have been a trap set up by Valve to see if there would be any leaks. In any case, if the studio really was working on “Left 4 Dead 3”, progress must have been quite slow considering we’re yet to see any official news about the game.
Recently, Valve have released a campaign for the original “Left 4 Dead” which never made it to the market with the first game. This reignited interest in the franchise for many, and currently a large number of fans are wondering if there is anything more special in development behind the scenes which could have inspired Valve to pay attention to the previous “Left 4 Dead” titles.
The main theory is that the company is indeed working on “Left 4 Dead 3”, and this was supposed to be a small teaser to get everyone excited for the big announcement. Valve have been quiet on the issue, as can be expected, although not many of their fans realistically expect the studio to address the situation before they’re ready for an actual announcement.
As for the game itself, there is no shortage of rumors about what it could bring to the table. From its characters to the setting, fans have been speculating on many aspects of its development, and it looks like Valve have a great opportunity with this release if they handle it seriously.
Some of the more unusual rumors claim that the game could see a change in the number of characters. On one hand, we have claims that it could feature a group of six survivors, but many fans were quick to point out that the name of the game would make no sense at that point.
On the other hand, it’s also been theorized that there could be only three survivors in the new game, in order to match the new name in a more special way. However, that could possibly affect the balance in unpredictable ways, as the original gameplay was designed around the idea of having exactly four players. The dynamics of the game could become quite different if that aspect was changed.
There also seem to be some issues with the rights to the franchise, although so far Valve have apparently retained control and have no plans to give up their property to anyone else. Since the game was originally developed with Turtle Rock Studios, some fans theorized that this could lead to some issues for Valve if they wanted to develop a sequel on their own. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case, so fans shouldn’t worry about that unless Valve actually addresses it as a problem