Washington-based developer on the receiving end of unfamiliar anger from fans

Acclaimed developer Valve is facing an unfamiliar problem; its fans are not happy.

At Microsoft’s strong press conference at E3 last week, Valve announced it is working on a sequel to the 2008 hit survival-horror-co-op game Left 4 Dead.

Presumptions that Valve’s fan base would be pleased with the announcement have, however, backfired.

Aggrieved that the developer has focused its efforts on a new product, a large group of members from the Valve community have set up athe Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Group on Steam, Valve’s online games portal and community service.

The Boycott group has gained over 15,000 members in a single week, and pledges that its members will not be purchasing Left 4 Dead 2 unless some drastic decisions are made.

When the petition group’s membership reached 5,000 virtual signatures, one Valve user wrote “it's no surprise that the Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott has already reached over 5,000 members. We are all quite disappointed in Valve with their decision to launch L4D2 so soon after the original release of L4D1. The chat room has become full of people voicing their opinions on this.”

Members of the boycott group allege that Valve’s commitment to a sequel will mean its focus on the original Left 4 Dead will be compromised.

Those joining the group have, by extension, committed themselves to the Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott’s manifesto, which believes that “the release of Left 4 Dead 2 as a stand-alone sequel will split the communities and decrease the quality of multiplayer gaming”.


The group states that Left 4 Dead 2 “does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead.” It adds that the original Left 4 Dead has not enjoyed “the support and content which Valve has repeatedly stated will be delivered”.

The group’s manifesto has committed to “holding Valve to its promise of free, continual updates to Left 4 Dead in order to build and sustain the community”, to keep the Left 4 Dead community together “in order to improve the quality of online gaming”, and to “support the model of continual updates Valve has set forth with its staple products like Team Fortress 2.”

Though acknowledging that Valve needs to release product to sustain itself comercially, the group doesn’t easily recognise that the developer has a desire to create games which interest and excite its fleet of designers, programmers, artists and animators. Instead it states that the release of Left 4 Dead 2 will “make Left 4 Dead an obsolete purchase and inferior piece of software after only one year since release”.

Valve has revolutionised PC gaming with its online games service, Steam. Since the company launched in 1996, it has continually developed lucrative and applauded series of games such as Half-Life. The company also was a pioneer of sorts with its engagement with the community. Gabe Newell, the company’s founder, still pledges to read every email sent to him by fans of the company.

A Valve representative could not be reached at the time of going to press.

http://www.developmag.com/news/32117...-4-Dead-sequel ...

ew rumour suggests a product code-name that might well be used at retail.
Tech blog DaringFireball has ventured that one of the devices set to be unveiled by Apple at the WWDC tonight will be iPhone 3GS.

The rumour - based on tip off - says that 3GS is the code-name for the new range-topping iPhone (though what the 'S' stands for is not known) and that it could well be used as the final moniker at retail.


DaringFireball also reasserts its previous predictions of the iPhone '3GS' spec, which includes faster processors, double the RAM and twice the storage.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/33437...ing-iPhone-3GS ...

Chillingo is poised to release its latest iPhone game, Defender Chronicles, which it is hoping to make available through Apple's App Store in the coming weeks.
the game is set in a fantasy mediaeval workd, and challenges players with defending their empire from an invasion of orc hordes and evil undead. The game combines classic RPG elements with the increasingly popular tower defense genre, which has been made popular by the likes of Field Runners.
With five game modes and five hand-drawn worlds, the game boasts an impressive feature-set and includes a range of difficulty settings to appeal to a range of casual and traditional gamers.

http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/287...ding-to-iPhone ...

It's pretty much the eve of Apple's big WWDC press conference, and Daring Fireball's John Gruber is back at the eleventh hour to chime in some more on his previous (and perhaps well-informed) iPhone predictions. He sticks to his previous wagers -- twice the CPU speed, twice the RAM, a heavy emphasis on a new video camera (no word on if there's an additional front-facing one), and $199 / $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively -- but additionally chimes in that the new device's codename is... drumroll, please... the iPhone 3GS, which he surmises is probably going to be the final product name, as well. Kind of a yawner, if you ask us, but it'd sell like gangbusters no matter what it was called. As for that lowered-tiered iPhone, he's expecting it to be the current 3G model with a price drop to $99. Also on the table is iPhone tethering, which we already know was built into OS 3.0, likely for a fee chosen by each carrier. Teasing farther into the future, he suggests "Marble," codename for an OS X visual overhaul, and the tablet are very much real projects but that there's little to no chance it'll be at WWDC. No clue what the "S" stands for (speed, perhaps?), but at this point we're pretty much counting the minutes to todays's keynote, and our clocks can't tick much faster.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/07/i...ows-unveiling/ ...

Nintendo's Wiimote (and the Nunchuk, by extension) have certainly been wired up to control their fair share of oddities, but we honestly can't think of a more suitable use for a spare 'chuk than this right here. The so-called Beancat is nothing more than a motorized beanbag chair that takes direction from a wired Nunchuk, and while we can't exactly speak from experience, it certainly looks thrilling from afar. Have a glance yourself just past the break, and tap the read link if you're eager to see how it all came together.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/07/v...beancat-chair/ ...

We've certainly seen Apple's iPhone act as an integral part of a vehicle before, but we've yet to see one front and center on a motorbike. Hailed as the planet's first "digital superbike," the MotoCzysz E1pc packs some pretty sick technology from end-to-end. Aside from being a zero-emissions, all-electric motorcycle, it reportedly relies on Apple's darling for its instrumentation. Sadly, details about what exactly the iPhone handles are few and far between, but hopefully we'll hear more after its upcoming run in the TTXGP on June 12th. Two more looks after the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/m...e-in-the-dash/ ...

Confession time: we weren't exactly charmed by Sony's PSP Go when Sony made the thing official. It's not that we're particularly fond of UMD (quite the contrary as a matter of fact), rather we found it a little hard to stomach a slimmer device that offers nearly the same hardware as its predecessor, swapping an optical drive for more storage, yet will cost nearly twice as much. Factor in the cost of all new accessories and things get even less appealing, with confirmation that the Go lacks a standard mini USB port on top, meaning things like PSP keyboards and Sony's GPS accessory are on a fast-track to obsolescence. Even current A/V cables and chargers won't work thanks to a new multifunction port on the base -- but Sony will be quite happy to sell you new ones. Is this the price of progress, or an attempt to boost profit margins? It's not good news for gamers, regardless.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/p...accessories-c/ ...

We've yet to see Palm or Sprint confirm these numbers, but a quote from JPMorgan found in a Wall Street Journal roundup this morning asserts that "sales [of the Pre] in the first two days probably exceeded 50,000." The report continues by mentioning that said figure was "aligned with expectations, but probably fell short of the 146,000 reported first-gen iPhone sales" during its opening weekend due to "capacity constraints in manufacturing." By and large, most analysts are deeming the Pre launch a success, though it's hard to say whether the suits at Palm and Sprint agree or disagree. No matter how you slice it, 50,000 units in a single weekend ain't nothing to scoff at, but we'd say next weekend's sales could be even more telling. You know, if anything goes down today at 1:00PM ET.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/p...ening-weekend/ ...

The Code Tactics team have released v0.04 of the 3D helicopter shooter, Apollonia.




Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...