Valve provides a disappointing update to fans who had hoped the company was developing Left 4 Dead 3. In January, a YouTuber revealed concept art that seemed to be from Left 4 Dead 3, prompting Valve to deny that the game is in development.
Speaking to IGN, Valve developers Chris Remo and Robin Walker explained why those Left 4 Dead images were created. Walker said that the team "used parts of a Left 4 Dead level as the first bit of level geometry to start building in Source 2," which is the game engine that Valve announced in 2015. The images were part of a rendering test, said Walker, but many fans took them to mean that Left 4 Dead 3 is in development.
Fans of the Left 4 Dead series will be hugely disappointed by what Walker has said. While there are several zombie multiplayer games, the asymmetrical gameplay of the Left 4 Dead series has made the games some of the most popular. It has also been nearly 11 years since Left 4 Dead 2 was released but fans haven't stopped enjoying it, which is why so many have asked Valve to make a new game.
However, some fans may be holding hope that Valve will come back to the Left 4 Dead series. Few expected Valve to release a new Half-Life game and today is the release of Half-Life: Alyx. This shows that Valve will sometimes come back to popular series years after the last game was released if the team has an idea and feels that it can be a success.
There are also some other asymmetrical multiplayer games that are being released this year or are in development which fans can enjoy while Valve decides not to do anything with Left 4 Dead. One of these is Resident Evil Resistance, the multiplayer part of the Resident Evil 3 remake, which will be available next month. Predator: Hunting Grounds, which allows a team of soldiers to play against the Predator, releases next month too and will be on PC and PS4.
In 2019, Turtle Rock Studios which has former Left 4 Dead developers on the team, announced a new shooter game called Back 4 Blood. Turtle Rock hasn't revealed much gameplay information about Back 4 Blood and the game hasn't been given a trailer but it does sound like it could be the sort of game that Left 4 Dead fans want, without being made by Valve.
Left 4 Dead 3 is not in active development.
Source: IGN