Valve have been quiet on pretty much all their fronts lately – there have been no news about any potential new releases from them recently, and it looks like the company is either working on something big in complete secrecy, or they’re focusing on non-gaming related projects for the time being. It was recently expected that we would get some news about “Left 4 Dead 3”, as there were some strong indications that Valve are preparing for the announcement of that game, but that didn’t happen.
What we know about the game so far is that it’s definitely in development, and it could even be one of the games that use Valve’s all new Source 2 engine. The engine has been known to be in the works for some time now, but we’re not sure what games Valve are planning to use it on exactly. The obvious elephant in the room, “Half-Life 3”, will probably be released on the new engine, whenever that game comes to the market.
People have reportedly also seen “Left 4 Dead 3” in an internal bug tracking database used by Valve, which indicates two things – not only does the game exist, but it’s also in active development if the team is tracking issues with it. The spotting was actually very brief and didn’t reveal anything too useful, but it did imply that the game is running on Source 2.
There could be another explanation for this, according to some. Valve could indeed be working on Source 2, and “Left 4 Dead 3” isn’t so much an actual game as it is a test bed for all new features of the engine. This would make sense in the context of the previously seen screenshot showing a map from an old “Left 4 Dead” game remade in the new engine, and it could give Valve a lot of freedom in advancing their technology further without having to worry about coming up with new assets all the time.
If that’s the case, “Left 4 Dead 3” may not actually make it to the market, at least not in its current state. If the game is being used to test new features of the Source 2 engine, it could end up a very messy, bloated product that’s not worth releasing.
Meanwhile, other developers haven’t forgotten the franchise and keep its memory alive – fans have spotted a sign saying “Left 4 Bread” in “Dying Light”, another popular horror-themed game that came out more recently. There have been other spottings of “Left 4 Dead”-related elements in other games as well, and it’s nice to see that the market still hasn’t forgotten about the game.