Left 4 Dead 3 May Have Just Leaked In The Most Boring Way Possible
UPDATE: And the bubble bursts. In a statement to IGN, Valve was pretty adamant that a new Left 4 Dead title is not in development.
"It's clear some people are having fun creating misinformation to spin up the community and other outlets," Valve said. "Unfortunately, for now a new L4D game is not something we're working on."
Well that's lame! Our original story follows.
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Left 4 Dead 3 is or isn't in development, depending on who you talk to and which conspiracy theories you believe. We may have a bit of news, however, that provides a bit more evidence for the "Left 4 Dead 3 is definitely happening" side.
It comes courtesy of HTC China's president, Alvin Wang Graylin, who — no joke — mentioned the game in a PowerPoint slide he shared online. The slide is titled, "2020 VR Trends," and according to it, "Valve HL: Alyx / LFD3 will drive consumer and AAA studio interest."
A few slides from my talk tonight... pic.twitter.com/bHegijjZW1
— Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) (@AGraylin) January 17, 2020
"LFD3," huh? What is that about?
There's a lot to unpack here, so let's get to it.
To start, it's entirely possible HTC is just speculating here that Left 4 Dead 3 is in Valve's plans. We've not received any official word from Valve that the game is on the way, and this is an awfully silly way to get that news. A PowerPoint slide from a partner? Seriously?
It would also make sense for HTC to know something like this. HTC was partnered with Valve for years before the Index VR headset came along, as the Vive was the preferred hardware option for experiencing VR in Steam. And the two seem to still be working very closely, as HTC believes Valve's moves will help generate more interest in the VR gaming market.
But we're skipping over what is probably the biggest piece in the entire thing – Left 4 Dead 3 is being talked about like it's a VR game. It's being mentioned in the same breath as Half-Life: Alyx in a slide about VR trends. That's a pretty big deal, and tells you quite a bit about where Valve's head might be at in terms of game development. If Left 4 Dead 3 is real, and it is indeed a VR title, Valve may have even more going on behind the scenes than we thought.
We'll have to wait for more leaks — or maybe an official announcement — before we feel extremely confident about Left 4 Dead 3 being real and being a VR experience. Should something else pop up, we'll let you know.