Network now...NEWS
18,500 Join Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Group
Update: Valve addresses Left 4 Dead 2 critics
Over 18,400 individuals have signed up to a Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Group on Steam, Valve’s online games portal and community service.
The community campaign against Left 4 Dead 2, the recently announced sequel to Valve’s November 2008 survival-horror co-op title L4D, was formed on June 1.
According to the group, the hurried release of Left 4 Dead 2 as a standalone sequel will "split the communities and decrease the quality of multiplayer gaming… The announced content of Left 4 Dead 2 does not warrant a standalone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead," it says.
"Left 4 Dead has not yet received the support and content which Valve has repeatedly stated will be delivered," the group continues. "Therefore, we - the members of this Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott - promise to abstain from the purchase of Left 4 Dead 2 until our requests are addressed."
The group asks that Valve continues to release L4D DLC and that the sequel be launched either as a discount expansion or as a free download.
Announced at E3 earlier this month for Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 is slated for release on November 17. It’s set to feature five new campaigns, dynamic weather effects, a new melee weapon system, zombie dismemberment, four new survivors, variant special infected, 20 plus weapons and a third multiplayer mode.
Valve's VP of marketing, Doug Lombardi, recently told Edge how the company’s developing some of the core features of L4D for the upcoming sequel.
Contact Us / About Us / Advertise With Us / BeltwayBlips / TechBlips / MassiveBlips / GamerBlips / FAQ
Subscribe To Edge Magazine / Corrections / Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Subscribe To Edge Magazine / Corrections / Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Oh the irony!
Valve creates a game where a small group of losers are abandoned to fend for themselves. I guess what they say is right, there IS an extra level of realism on the PC version of games!
I read this from an article, it was really good read however I couldn't get the link to work.
Your first car is as special as your first love. Whether you purchased it after years of working after-school jobs, or it was a graduation gift from thrilled parents, that otherwise soulless piece of machinery takes on the characteristics of a beloved pet. You name it, we dress it up, you let it become an inextricable part of our personality, and you have trouble letting them go. Even after the thing has become a leaky, noisy, smelly hazard to the health and safety of everyone around it, you still hold onto it for long after it should have been retired.
As we endure the Next Great Recession and are forced to make our possessions last longer, I wonder if the same sort of attachment will apply to home video game consoles.
At the E3 Expo last year, Sony Computer Entertainment America's Jack Tretton said the PlayStation 3 is on a ten-year life cycle; and at this year's event, Microsoft executive Shane Kim said the same of the Xbox 360. Not only will these devices be supported for ten years, they will be the primary video gaming vehicles for Sony and Microsoft for twice as long as most other video game consoles in history.
Power Up with Tim Conneally feature bannerMy peers have fond memories of the Nintendo Entertainment System, but by the time we were all about to enter high school, there were newer and better things to look forward to. By Sony and Microsoft's timelines, a kid who got a PlayStation 3 in the second grade will theoretically have that console until he's a freshman in college. That may not seem like a very long time to an adult who finds himself saying the Berlin Wall was knocked down "not that long ago," but to a kid and computer alike, it's forever.
In the United States, every fifth autumn for the last 24 years has brought the market at least one new major video game console. These releases are preceded by months of concept art, tech demos, and early launch title name-dropping. Following this cycle, the next console-bearing season will come in 2011. The period of time when we'd normally start seeing the first wave of hype for the next-generation consoles is right now. Instead, we've got companies showing off flashy new accoutrements for the current generation.
Rather than debut a brand new car, they're offering improved steering.
By concentrating primarily on new peripherals and software support, gaming companies can save themselves the short-term risk and expense of console development in this unforgiving economic climate. But as a result of this choice, manufacturers are kicking console gaming behind PC gaming -- which continues to advance unencumbered -- by another generation.
Already, EA Europe Senior Vice President Patrick Soderlund has said the Xbox 360 has been "maxed out", and Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said the Wii has reached the point where games are getting too demanding for its limited resources.
While the current generation of consoles is indeed the most computer-like, they are still considered "closed box systems" -- that is, their components cannot be upgraded. If these systems are intended to last for ten years, there will have to be some hardware acceleration to keep up with developer and user performance demands.
But we've seen what happens when game companies try to accelerate a closed system with add-ons...You get the 32X CD system, or the video game world's equivalent of adding a huge aftermarket spoiler to a Nissan Sentra.
For consoles to truly make the jump from the sentimental kid's toy to the first car, a degree of openness and upgradeability needs to be planned into their development. As we learned to change our own tires, oil, filters and such to keep our beloved beaters running, so too will kids learn to chain multiple GPUs and optimize the airflow in their video game systems to keep them going for ten years or more.
Who are you? You're not Dreamhunk, Dreamhunk would spell recession wrong! I WANT MY DREAMHUNK BACK!!!
Seriously though, the point of a console is to have video game hardware that you don't have to upgrade to play awsome games at pretty good graphics. The 32X failed because there were all these add-ons to the blasted system. I had one when I was a kid, and I've read from Games(tm) and Edge on how Sega has failed, no small part to this system.
If we have to upgrade our console over the years then it's just like a small computer, and the point of consoles would change into something else. Recession or not, consoles will not become upgradable hardware. If it becomes that, then the money is better off building a custom PC.
I didn't write that lol, the link for it wouldn't for me so I copy pasted the article to edge.
the name of the article is called "How long can Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 survive on life support?" you can google it. :)
Here's a link that'll cheae you up Hunk -
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/10/sims-3-has-best-ea-pc-launch-ever/
Although you might not like how it states that PC gaming is kept alive by our Moms playing sissy games.
It only proves my point that the media hates pc gaming and they will write any bias topics attacking pc gaming. In fact the whole gaming Industry is a joke.it's more a less a hardware side show.
more like the death of consoles is coming. You who who the real losers are people who are dum enough to pay billlions of dallars just to be in the red
http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=16595
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/05/e3-predictions/
http://www.examiner.com/x-8608-Baltimore-Video-Game-Lifestyle-Examiner~y...
it's only a matter of time before the wheels fall off.
You've got to be kidding me, right?
I read the links, it's a bunch of BS. Please, please don't tell me you seriously believe this.
Yes, the PS3 has a lot more powerful hardware under its hood, but the 360 is still pretty good. It's just a matter of developers now trying to be creative with their engines and changing it around to get more out of the system.
Even if it hits a graphical wall, so what? Graphics don't make a good game! Perhaps when they do hit the cap of graphical development, even with the engine maximised to the hardware, we might see more effort put into the Design aspect of gaming, and get better quality games?
I can only see the graphical cap a good thing. It'll put some innovation back into the mainstream industry and they will have to force themselves to create a brilliantly designed game to be competitive in the market.
To say though that the death of consoles, as a whole, is a bunch of BS. Consoles have been around before we were born. Consoles introduced gaming to the consumer and even after the Video Game Crash consoles came into the market again after that. They will always be around, they're here to stay.
You said no flaming, but I'm getting warmer. I don't know how many more of these posts I can take before I lose control......
I'm trying myself not to mobolise my Necron army.
Double post
Lol. Well put.
Also, does the game really feature 5 characters? Shouldn't it be called left 5 dead? or "Sur-5-al horror game"? I mean, otherwise, where's the pun?
Left 4 Dead 2 really should have 6 characters
Or it should have 8, since 4 have been left for dead twice now or actually 9 because 4 were left in the first one and apparently 5 are left in this one. L9D, but then it sounds like left ninety which doesn't sound like anything.
50p says that out of the 18,500 boycotters, at least 17,000 buy the game anyway. (I'm assuming that the game will be good, if they don't buy it because it's poo, that's a different matter.)
What a pile of bollocks!
People jumping on the bandwagon when there are literally dozens of sequels out there offering less. Sports games for instance - yearly iterations with barely any changes that will be noticed by anyone other than the devout fans.
In these tough times I can fully appreciate why Valve want to make a quick buck.
pc gamers are smart they want quality products. Pc gamers can support big companies even in hard times. However they dislike being abused. There is no better way to show that than boycoott. From the sounds of if they are more worried about community somthing you console gamers are new to. Community is just as important as the game it self.
In the pc gaming world reputation is everything
No, money is everything.
As for the boycott, it will do next to nothing at all to dent sales or the reputation of Valve. Out of just over 2million L4D customers 15000 have a hissy fit. Percentage wise that's an extremely vocal and ridiculous minority of 0.75%.
***correction***
18000 or so hissy-fitters, still under 1%.
*double post*
18,500 sign boycott - 17,500 of those still buy L4D2. Why does this even get so much exposure? The game sold over 2 million copies so this is a tiny, yet comically vocal minority.
Sadly, the internet usually exposes the lowest common denominator of humanity and this is just the latest example. Sports games get released annually at full price with basically only a roster update. Fans of series complain about how long it takes for a sequel to come out and then complain when it comes out faster than they expect.
The game comes with even more content than the original (5, rather than 4 chapters) while holding the same price point and people still complain. Delusional people claim that they were implicitly promised free content for the old game - the only promise you have is what's on the box - that's your contract. (Free content was provided with a title update expanding the modes to all chapters anyway).
What a whiny bunch of kids thinking they're entitled to anything they want whenever they want it. Valve is a for-profit business and knows what they need to do to remain profitable more than these spoiled brats. They didn't buy the development team that created L4D for free and they didn't hire the team that created Portal as charity - they need to realize a ROI and that means they need to expedite their development process which has the added benefit of subsidizing future longer-development cycle products.
I think the main problem here is Sony's competition.
MS simply can't compete with the amount of studios Sony owns. Sony can have the luxary of having games that are 4 years in production (KZ2, The Last Gardian, GT5 for example) and MS can't.
They are obviously rushing this game out. All of that should be DLC for L4D1, but if it were, then Valve would not have a game to release by the end of the year, and MS has to release some games by xmas time.
Valve are an indenpendant developer and nothing to do with microsoft. Also the 360's superior games library and the fact that Sony's first party studios are generally gash hardly give sony any advantage.
You do know that is impossible to develop a high profile video game in a year don't you? Unless that game is "something 1.5". Which seems to be the case.
Limanima,
I tend to agree with a lot of what you say, but it's not even near impossible to develop a high profile title in a year. One of the highest profile series has had annual releases since the 360's inception (CoD). Granted, it was done by two different devs, but there's no reason why Valve can't have two teams or staff from EA helping. And also, if the game doesn't use a new game-engine (which from everything I've ever read or listened to in podcasts or game commentary creating the game engine takes up most the time) it won't take nearly as much time.
I do think that releasing sequels annually is too quick, 1.5 or not.
The reason you don't own a PS3 is obvious. You have been in a cave for the past 2 years...
"the 360's superior games library"
You might benefit from checking what's been happening on PS3's games library during past two years.
While the PS3 game library has certainly improved the past two years (it really couldn't get any worse, could it?) it still lags FAR behind that of 360. Just look at the number of titles across all the genres and the number of highly rated games (not by percentage of game library, but by quantity of games) and the 360 still holds an appreciable lead over both PS3 and Wii - so yes, it has a superior games library.
It really comes down to opinion here. They each have something for everyone but I think there's more diversity on the PS3. Owning all 3 systems I play the PS3 the most. Ratings in themselves don't necessarily mean much. I find Gears2 to be below average and many people think Infamous is overrated.
I also own all three consoles, Rob. While there are plenty of games I enjoy playing on PS3 (inFamous and EndWar are two favorites of mine right now) my 360's get far more play time in my household.
Finally, it is a demonstrable fact (not opinion) that 360 has the largest AND most diverse game library of any current gen system. Just look at any game database (IGN, GameSpot, etc.) where you can sort by genre and count the number of games for each genre - 360 has several hundred more titles available. As to whether any of those particular titles are good is certainly opinion though, as you have correctly stated.
I see what you are saying although you can't necessarily go by how a website groups them into genres. Gamespot, for example, lists Little Big Planet as an action which I don't believe is even remotely accurate.
*yawn*
It's not going to change anything, most likely.
When are these dev's going to learn.
Whenever PC gamers get mad, they boycott companies. Most gamers buy a game if it's good, & not buy a game if it's bad. Not PC gamers!! They'll boycott operating systems, hardware, games, doesn't matter.
No wonder nothing sells on PC's except MMO's. The only way you can keep a PC "in-check" is the ability to "take your game and go home!"
That is why every real game is on consoles!! People will buy a game based on merit - they won't rip 4 weeks early when it's missing a whole town a bitch about gameplay, & they won't boycott a game sight unseen.
Meet Indremhunk - Arch Nemesis of Dreamhunk!!
I think by real games he's referring to the play-through-story-throw-away type that is so popular with console gamers and the competition/co-op games that people play online for decades (like starcraft for example) are fake :).
But Starcraft had a very good story! You can also say the same thing about Contra and Gunstar Heroes, and they are both excellent games.
I suppose it goes down to a matter of opinion at the end of the day. Yes, there is very little story in L4D, but it is an amazingly fun game and that's what games are meant to be at the end of the day, fun.
Also, the PC video game industry is still thriving quite nicely.
A comment today? A lot of stuff happened last night, & by the time I got back to the computer, I figured the joke was really played out
I think the PC has plenty of real games. I'm just making fun of Dreamhunk & people like him that I see on game forums. I see them all the time - Only the PC can....Blah, Blah, Blah.
I'm a PC gamer. I have a Core i7 975 (freon-cooled), GTX-280 in SLI, 12GB DDR3 1600+, hooked up to 40" LED. I have a hacked Wiimote that I use to play Zelda & Mario Kart in 720p, & a 360 controller for my PC games. The whole thing cost around $5,000 dollars. I have the rig that these PC cock-jobs cite as the reason PC's are better than consoles. Is it better? Damn straight, but to assume that everyone should purchase, or already have, a $5,000 dollar rig just to play Crysis in 5 extra frames than the 360 is hilarious!
"WHY ARE THESE SITES ALL CONSOLE....BLAH, BLAH" If someone can't determine the reasoning behind $299/$399 vs. $5,000 install base, then they suck at life & should be made fun of constantly.
I'm a PC gamer as well, but I also enjoy playing on consoles as well (still enjoy going back to the PS2 games).
Well, Dreamhunk can sometimes make a fair point. I've seen him on this for awhile now and there are times where he makes a valid point. Still, all down to opinion on some things as well, I suppose.
All I have for PC gaming is my XPS laptop. Still not bad. Runs Crysis at low with steady frames and, if it can do that, can run other games on mostly high.
I see both valid arguements for and against console and PC gaming, each one having a fair point. I just don't like the comments that a certain industry is dying, such as the PC industry, when I can throw a fistful of facts, not opinions, but facts proving them wrong.
==========
OFF TOPIC
==========
Also I don't like comments that pirating games is okay. It gets under my skin and when they say "the net profit in the end makes it okay" really makes me shudder, especially when I can also slam those comments back into the stone-age with real figures of the loss companies are losing out. I only approve of pirating when there is no legal way of getting the said game. Then it enters a grey shaded area.
I'm interested, define "real game" as you have stated up above.
I think some game devs need to know how to deal with their fanbase. lol one of them don't make a promise you can't keep. Let your fanbase know why you can't add what ever feature because they will rember it. Anet had that problem with guild wars. I was one of the people that helped them out. lol
I have to say that I completely agree with this boycott the first left for dead came out a mere 7 months ago and is definitely not worth the 60 dollars I paid for it, not to mention I was under the impression that a slew of DLC would be released when in fact theres been one measly update that barely adds anything to the gameplay so I definitely understand the frustration when valve expects ppl to shell out another 60 bucks for things that couldve been slowly added to the first one.
Can’t wait to pick up this game. Heck, if it’s as good as the first, I’m up for a new sequel every year.
I doubt the boycott wil directly dent sales, though I am quite sure it will not sell as well as the original game.
What it will do is dent Valve's usually impeccable rep, though the announcement of the game already has -- a decade's history of substantial support for released titles, only to prematurely announce a sequel to a game that never got what was promised and expected. The list of 'features' in L4D2 sound a lot like what should be in free updates for the original title.
I have joined the Steam group mysefl, because I know Valve will listen. They are not interested in alienating fans. I think the best solution to this problem is to package L4D2 with the original L4D, and for people who already own the original, give them a discount for the sequel. Let it be combined into one full title, so that the community is not split and no one feels excluded. I think most people would find this appropriate, albeit still disappointed that some of these features weren't included in the price of the original, which was lacking in content as it is.
For the Xbox 360, however, I do not know what solution there could be...but it is not like the console valve games get many updates anyway.
Not splitting community means not releasing second game, not figuring out how to get people owning two games.
that's nice. don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.
in the meantime, the rest of us will wait until the sequel is actually released before we make any informed decisions.
alot less money and fans if that boycott gets big enough. If a boycott get big enough it can put dent in that companies future income.
Yeah, I guess the one plus million console fans don't mean much when compared to the 18k internet connected PC fans, I'm sure EA is really freaking out (remember, console owners aren't connected to the internet?).
In all fairness, it does seem a strange move on Valve's part releasing a sequel so fast. Usually there's years in between their games, and that's just for episodic content. Now they're releasing a sequel in just 1 year? I smell some EA involvement here...are we sure ActivisionBlizzard didn't secretly acquire Valve???
That is what pc gamers do we boycott companies,when we are mad. Oh there is pc gamers that have boycott AMD too. Our new tactic is also to rent console games and consoles if the game is not found on our pc's
we have boycott vista
we have boycott game for windows
we boycoott UT3
we boycott the one starwars mmo
we boycott companies we don't like. We don't like something we don't buy it. If we want something there ways of getting it. this is the first time the media has cought us in action,it's nothing new really.