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Valve Confirms Left 4 Dead DLC Free On PC, Paid On Xbox 360
by Chris Remo [PC, Console/PC]
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August 4, 2009
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Living up to previously-made claims that Left 4 Dead would receive additional content in the wake of the Left 4 Dead 2 announcement, Valve has sent out word of the upcoming "Crash Course" update, to be available for free on PC and for 560 Microsoft Points ($7) on Xbox 360.
The update is said to contain maps for the game's Cooperative, Survival, and Versus multiplayer modes, with the team giving itself the design goal of allowing for "a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes."
In addition to the maps themselves, various gameplay tweaks have been made to facilitate that end result. The game is set in between Left 4 Dead's existing "No Mercy" and "Death Toll" campaigns, explaining what happened to the four survivors after their ostensible rescue at the end of the first campaign.
Valve has long been a proponent of free content updates for its games, describing that policy as a way of continually promoting sales of full games and keeping its titles relevant among the gaming audience.
However, numerous reports have suggested Microsoft is less amenable to the practice of offering free content through its Xbox Live Marketplace, leading to publicly-revealed disputes between the manufacturer and companies such as Epic, which also has a tradition of free expansion content, over pricing structures.
Said Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, "Since the release of Left 4 Dead last November, the design team has been excited about creating new experiences for this world and allowing players to do the same, by releasing much of our internal toolset, like the Survival Pack and Authoring Tools. We're working with the fans toward the ongoing entertainment value of the product."
Crash Course will be released this September for both systems.
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It also gives your game "legs".
I talk all about this kind of stuff in my blog...
http://aboutmakinggames.blogspot.com/
Mac
I look forward to seeing the content and advancements in Left 4 Dead. Great job, Valve.
If anyone is interested... Check out two great, new, Left 4 Dead campaigns in development on my blog,
http://duskmourne.blogspot.com
Personally, I would rather spend the money on Servers, Free DLC and gaming related features instead of bringing films and all that kind of stuff that no matter what... will eventually appear Online as a complete reality.
In the end $50 a year isn't a huge expense for me, but like Christian is saying about where the money goes, I would rather pay less money and have it all go to servers, updates, and the like, rather than stupid videos promoting games, contests, advertisements, and movies.
A classic entitled man's argument. The answer is obviously that if they didn't charge money for it, there would be no reason to provide the service. I doubt a free PSN would completely ruin their strategy, also, given that their most played games, Halo and Gears, are exclusives anyways. No, the real question is, why do YOU pay for Xbox LIVE, seeing as how, you know, no one's forcing you to.
I think you may be missing the point of the question which is why is it free on PC and $7 on XBL?
...and how is that seven dollars divided?
In Valve's case they have always been PC-centric and their more recent offerings have been a far better experience on the PC than on xbox IMO
Because Valve controls distribution on the PC (using Steam) and Microsoft controls distribution on the 360.
It might also have to do with the fact that 360 users are more likely to buy content then PC users (who are use to free DLC).
That was not made by Valve, only distributed by them on Steam.
I'm glad are finally releasing some actual decent CONTENT for L4D, but in my opinion they should have released this when the survival mode came out. The other 4 campaigns should have been versus-enabled from the start.
Anyone suspect this is a response to the negative feedback concerning L4D2?
Easy. Charge for the most wanted feature, online multiplayer, and people are bound to pay. If I was thinking purely about money I would do the same thing.