Valve Software said Tuesday that its new zombie-slaying co-op game Left 4 Dead 2 sold 2 million copies worldwide in its opening two weeks, with sales to date "more than double" the original in a comparable time frame.
Black Friday sales in the U.S. helped push the title past expectations, Valve said. Retailers such as Amazon.com and Valve's own digital storefront Steam held limited-time deals that priced the game at under $40. Valve expects the game to be one of the biggest sellers on both PC and Xbox 360 for 2009.
"Left 4 Dead 2 is off to a great start with strong support at retail and great reviews from the press," said Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing. "Meanwhile the title has already been played by over 1 million Xbox LIVE Gold account holders, and news regarding L4D2 DLC 1 is coming very soon."
The original Left 4 Dead has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, Valve said in September this year. Electronic Arts publishes the game at retail.
The launch of Left 4 Dead 2 for Xbox 360 and PC was backed by a $25 million ad campaign, substantially more than the $10 million ad campaign behind 2008's original Left 4 Dead.
Valve launched Left 4 Dead 2 on Xbox 360 and PC in the U.S. on November 17. The game launched in Europe and Japan shortly afterwards.
The Left 4 Dead property debuted just over a year ago, and was originally developed by Orange County-based Turtle Rock Studios, which Valve purchased while the game was in development.
Left 4 Dead 2 adds new gameplay elements, such as melee combat, new characters and enemies, more campaigns, maps, and new modes.
And that's only at retail. Again, it would be interesting to see how Steam numbers stack up, with 4-packs, Black Friday 25%-off deals, etc. all going for it too.
Have to give the team some credit, the game is overall an improvement in every area except the partner AI. The level design itself is particularly fantastic.
Way better graphics and game play. I don't mind the characters either... although Bill from L4D1 was still the best!
I would love to know how many PC copies sold!