Valve denies rumors of Left 4 Dead prequel

Yesterday rumor mongers came up with an especially enticing little morsel of gaming news. The rumor floating around was that Overkill, the studio behind the co-op bank heist shooter, PAYDAY, was working with Valve on developing a prequel to the Left 4 Dead series.

Honestly, the rumor seemed a bit sketchy at the time so we decided not to write about it until an official word came in. Today, Chet Faliszek of Valve announced to the world that there is no such collaboration in the works.

I don't want to give it away, because we want the community to explore and find it, but I want to make sure that people don't think the prequel is coming," said Faliszek told PCGamesN. "If that happens, then it will make this other thing we're doing feel uncool, when the thing we're doing is really cool. I mean, the problem is, if you make a rumour, and you can make the rumour anything, you're going to make the rumour really, really cool. And that makes everything else sound less cool."

The idea of a collaboration between Valve - with their endless resources and ingenuity - and Overkill with their obvious talent for unique co-op experiences, had many fans worked into a tizzy. However, Faliszek says that the collaboration is more akin to Team Fortress 2, where you'll see other games weapons incorporated into the play. Not that the collaboration is exactly like that, but he says it's similar. Whatever that means.

We'll be sure to report on any news regarding the actual facts of the Overkill/Valve collaboration. Even if it's minor in scope, we'll still be excited to see what they're doing together.

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Andrew Groen

Andrew is a freelance video game journalist, writing for sites like Wired and GamesRadar. Andrew has also written a book called EMPIRES OF EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online.

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