A new job listing suggests that Turtle Rock Studios is about to resurrect the Left 4 Dead franchise and finally bring the long-awaited third entry to life. It has been nine years since developers released the second installment in the series, but the title could be crawling towards a new release in the not too distant future.
Turtle Rock was formally Valve South, and they are the studio best-known for crafting the Left 4 Dead series. The cooperative first-person shooter first hit PC and Xbox back in 2008 and was quickly followed by Left 4 Dead 2 only a year later. Despite some middling reviews, Left 4 Dead 2's preorder sales were over 300% higher than the first game, and it looked almost certain that the series could become a trilogy. It sadly never came to be, as is the case with Valve games.
Related: The Death and Rebirth of Single Player Games In 2017
Turtle Rock is now recruiting for a Senior Level Designer for a "globally known game franchise," thus spawning speculation that Left 4 Dead 3 could be happening. The ideal candidate must have “experience working on competitive FPSs” and “working with modern FPS engines.” The Senior Level Designer is just one of a plethora of new job adverts on the site, suggesting that whatever Turtle Rock is working on, it is something big.
If not Left 4 Dead 3, the only other option is that Turtle Rock is recruiting for Evolve and hoping to redeem that series after the game's positive release tailed off into a dwindling player base and a nosedive in sales. Considering that the studio only just announced that it will be shutting down its Evolve servers for good in September, the logical answer is that Left 4 Dead 3 is next for Turtle Rock.
Interestingly, the release of Overkill's The Walking Dead has already been compared to Left 4 Dead, so Turtle Rock could be trying to muscle back in on the market. Using the same kind of co-op gameplay, Resident Evil 2 getting a remake in 2019, the zombie market is pretty crowded at the moment. That being said, the Left 4 Dead games were both icons of their times and aren't just ed for their graphic content and media scrutiny.
Bearing in mind that Left 4 Dead 3 was also teased back in 2016 for a fast-track 2017 release, this isn't the first time players have had their hopes dashed. Also, with Valve still retaining the rights to Left 4 Dead, another game would have to be a t venture between the two parties. Unfortunately, there is no official announcement of the game yet, so it is a case of wait and see for this mysterious title. In the meantime, players are left loading their shotguns and revving their chainsaws in the hope that Left 4 Dead 3 will come lumbering towards its loyal fanbase soon.
Next: Resident Evil 2 Is Simplifying Its Campaign Mode
Source: Turtle Rock
