"Left4Dead3" has reportedly popped up in CS2 files
"Priority: none. Yeah, we figured that out."
The term "Left4Dead3" has reportedly popped up in CS2 files.
Dubbed "version 2", the reference secreted in the files states that whilst the severity of Left4Dead3 is "high" – whatever that means – the priority is "none", which comes as no surprise to many of the commenters on Steam's subreddit page.
Whispers of a new Left 4 Dead title have been heard from several sources for several years now. Back in December 2019, Valve News Network's well-connected Tyler McVicker told Twitter followers that "Left 4 Dead VR is real", while in January 2020, Chinese HTC president Alvin Wang Graylin shared slides from a VR presentation making mention of Left 4 Dead 3.
The speculation prompted Valve to make a rare public comment, at which time the company stressed that it was "absolutely not" working on any new L4D game.
Left 4 Dead 3 spotted in CS2 files!
by u/PaP3s in Steam
Since then, however, the rumour mill had fallen silent, despite speculation that a new Left4Dead game was in development alongside the fantastic Half-Life: Alex. However, it's widely thought that Valve shelved the project until Source 2 was available.
"The rumour mill suggests that it was in fairly deep development before being scrapped around the same time HLVR/Alyx's development was ramping up to full production," opined one popular comment. "The reasons were likely as stated, the engine just wasn't ready, it could handle a singleplayer game, but much of the necessary networking support and other features weren't even close to ready.
"It's not unrealistic to assume that if it was as deep in development as the leaks suggested, that after CS2 is ironed out, it may become active again.
"But I strongly suspect only after CS2 has finished it's testing and fully shipped, since CS2 plugs a lot of the holes in Source 2's feature set."
"L4D3 was obviously planned to be shelved so that Valve could skip it and move on to L4D4," added another. "Anything to avoid releasing a game with the number 3."
Earlier this year, an early - and playable - prototype for Left 4 Dead leaked online.