Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Is No More News

Steam's Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters, Walking_Target and Agent of Chaos, have announced that they are going to shut down their boycott group on Steam as of 5:00pm UK time on October 21st.

"We have accomplished everything we can on our manifesto," said Agent of Chaos. "We've been dealing with Valve ever since our group started, then we met them in-person and now we're at the point of concluding our discussions. Our goal wasn't to steer people away from L4D2, it was to get Valve's attention and have them support original L4D. We succeeded and that's where our mission ends; nothing more or less."

"As a collective we have done more than achieve a few goals, we have paved the way for Developer-Community relations in the future," added Walking_Target. "No matter what the press or other gamers say, we have made an indelible mark upon the future of this industry. You should all be proud, we certainly are."

The group, which now stands at 40,000 members, was originally established in June of this year as a backlash to the announced release of Left 4 Dead 2 a year after the first game. The group demanded that Valve honour its commitment of supporting the community of the original Left 4 Dead game with free updates, and feared that the release of L4D2 would hinder this by splitting the communities.

Left 4 Dead 2's boycott group shot to fame, not only across the gaming press, but even in technology supplements of national papers (e.g. The Guardian here in the UK). The result was more publicity for Valve's L4D2 than the publisher could ever have hoped for, as this sequel has garnered far more interest in the press (following the boycott) than its predecessor ever managed.

Valve flew Walking_Target and Agent of Chaos to its studios in Washington state a couple of months ago to see L4D2 in action and interview some of the developers. The two then reported back that, "As for L4D2, things seemed balanced and 'tight' and did not feel like a rushed job."