Valve Says Left 4 Dead 3 Isn’t Happening

After the official unveiling and debut trailer for Half-Life: Alyx made the rounds, gamers from all over began wondering if famed developer Valve was working on any other passion projects. After the release of The Orange Box back in 2007, the Seattle-based studio was propelled into the spotlight as fans anxiously awaited followups to Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Portal. The latter eventually got a critically acclaimed sequel in 2011, and while we might never see a proper conclusion to Gordon Freeman’s fight against the Combine, Half-Life Alyx is poised to set a new standard for AAA virtual reality games.

Unfortunately, fans of Left 4 Dead have been, well, left for dead. Aside from a Japanese-exclusive arcade game, there’s been no proper entry in the series for over a decade. However, rumors surrounding Left 4 Dead 3 began to surface in 2019, and the last few days have seen a handful of new reports and plenty of speculation surrounding the unconfirmed title.

For those who need a bit of a recap, read on…

As GameRant reports, things kicked off when Tyler McVicker, the host of YouTube channel Valve News Network, shared supposed leaked concept art for the game. He also told viewers that both Left 4 Dead 3 and a separate Left 4 Dead VR were in development, with the last one giving Valve Index owners another title to try out on their high-end VR headsets. These reports also came around the time that HTC China President Alvin Wang Graylin listed “LFD3” as another virtual reality project being developed by Valve.

These rumors all sound well and good, but they came to a crashing halt when IGN reached out to Valve Corporation, which confirmed that the studio is “absolutely not working on anything L4D related now, and haven’t for years.” Of course, there’s a chance that Left 4 Dead 3 is being helmed by another studio, but right now, it’s hard to draw any concrete conclusions on the future of the franchise.

Thankfully, the creative minds behind the original L4D are now working on a zombie co-op shooter of their own, so rest assured, there’ll be plenty of undead to mow down in the future.