Valve learns from hasty Left 4 Dead 2 release

When Left 4 Dead 2 was announced at E3 2009, many gamers were flabbergasted. This was a sequel that was scheduled to be released a year after the original Left 4 Dead. Valve hadn’t delivered on the downloadable content it promised for L4D, and it appeared as though the company was merely cashing in on the franchise. The outrage over the sudden release of L4D2 has since subsided, but Valve has learned an important lesson from all this.

Valve founder Gabe Newell participated in an interview with PC Gamer where he addressed Valve’s community interaction following the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2. Newell feels if Valve engaged with the community more immediately following L4D2′s debut, there would not have been such an uproar.

“We set ourselves up by not thinking ahead to the fact that this would occur, and that’s why we spent a fair amount of time addressing those concerns, because we thought they were legitimate issues for people in the community to raise,” Newell said.

Newell pointed out former L4D2 boycott members purchased L4D2 in higher quantities than non-members. Newell credits Valve’s interaction with these skeptics for their change of heart. Valve convinced them L4D2 maintained the same quality as past Valve games.

“It’s a signal to noise problem,” Newell said. “If you decide to tune out signal just because there’s a lot of noise, then you’re missing a tremendous amount of opportunity to do well by your customers.”

After learning this lesson, Valve isn’t ruling out the chance for another quick sequel. Newell says he’s sure Valve will produce a sequel with the same speed as L4D2 in the future. This time Valve will communicate with its customers more to get them behind the idea.

Via [PC Gamer] Read [Attack of the Fanboy]