New Left 4 Dead DLC Coming Next Month

Valve said yesterday that they're working on a new campaign for Left 4 Dead, and they plan to release it in September. It's called Crash Course, and while it will be free for owners of the PC version, Xbox 360 users will need to purchase it. The new campaign "bridges the gap between the end of the 'No Mercy' campaign and the beginning of 'Death Toll' in the original game, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale." Crash Course isn't as long as the other campaigns, a deliberate decision by Valve to enable players to finish a Versus-mode game in about 30 minutes. A preview of the new content on Destructoid notes, "Since we've got a shorter campaign, much more has been packed into a smaller space. Lucky players who know where to look can upgrade to second-tier weaponry almost straight away. However, they'll have their work cut out for them, because there's a chance to get swamped by the horde right from the very beginning."

L4D

[sopssa]

Just to note here before the bitching starts, 360 version costs because MS wants it. Good that Valve gives it for free for PC users.

This sounds nice and comes nicely before Left4Dead2. Also shows that Valve continues to support their existing games, even for free. Same thing as with TF2. Most other companies would just had forgetten about it after release, maybe done a few bug fixes. Or asked $20 per more major update.

Nice work, and L4D was (and still is) my favourite game on end of last year and this year.

Re:Valve are more evil than EA.

[El_Muerte_TDS]

now say they'll charge XBox 360 owners for what was promised to be free

I'm not a Valve fan, but this isn't due to them. It is Microsoft who doesn't want free DLC on XBL.

Re:Valve are more evil than EA.

[sapphire wyvern]

MS doesn't like publishers to release free DLC on the XBox; they're trying to establish a community expectation that add ons should cost extra. I think I've read somewhere that they permit occasional small updates but insist that any significant expansions to the game's content be for.

There are already HQ Custom campagins

[dalmiroy2k]

There are a few Custom Campaigns that you should try, both for single and multiplayer.
The first one, Death Aboard, looks like as if it was made by Valve itself. It's really polished and has probably the best final level.
The second one, Dam It!, it's only one large level but it provides adequate challenges.
There is also a "Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake" custom campaign coming soon

Death Aboard.
http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_joomloads&view=package&Itemid=2&packageId=156 [l4dmods.com]
Dam it!
http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_joomloads&view=package&Itemid=2&packageId=329 [l4dmods.com]

Full list
http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_joomloads&view=packages&Itemid=2&category_id=24&orderCol=1&orderType=1&page=2 [l4dmods.com]

Re:L4D

[Anonymous Coward]

Valve, and other publishers, have released free 360 DLC before by eating the cost of testing and certification.

Microsoft requires all DLC to undergo a certification process they prescribe. It costs money to perform the testing and verification to meet Microsoft's requirements; Valve doesn't have to spend money to release the same content to PCs. This includes - amusingly - handling dependencies, which isn't a problem for Valve because Steam acts as a package manager that ensures everyone has the same platform. The 360 can't do that.

Valve's Gabe Newell [g4tv.com]:

On the Xbox it's a lot more complicated because you can't guarantee that people have all of the right content given their DLC model, where some people might have some content and others not, which makes it end of up with this weird, complicated thing where this person has this, and this person has this. Where as on the PC we can assume that people have everything. So, we're trying to get that fixed because they're sort of cramping our ability to push more free content into customer's hands when we aren't sure which free content they have right? And the stuff that you're allowed to require customers to have on the Xbox, it's only 8MB. That's the maximum size you can ever change. So, we do that with the first minor update that we do. We're trying to figure out how to manage that.

This isn't a problem exclusive to the 360. PS3 certification problems have delayed DLC for Epic; Newell says Valve won't even attempt PS3 DLC until they hire more developers. Hiring developers costs money.

Re:L4D

[Ksempac]

I don't know anything about Left 4 Dead, but it is a known fact that MS can fix prices for at least some of the DLC : i know the (awesome) Castle Crashers' team wanted their DLC free, but MS decided people should pay for it. Here is a proof : http://devblog.thebehemoth.com/?p=516 [thebehemoth.com] . The team even offered some MS points to counter this for their most loyal fans : http://devblog.thebehemoth.com/?p=1095 [thebehemoth.com]