14 DAY TRIAL // There's a lot of drama surrounding the systems on which Valve's zombie killing shooter Left 4 Dead will eventually be launched. Originally, the company said that only the PC and Xbox 360 owners would be able to survive the zombie apocalypse, while subsequent rumors pointed to the PlayStation 3 as another target.
The Official PlayStation Magazine quoted by gaming blog Kotaku says that "Valve's survival horror game Left 4 Dead is coming to PS3, but EA will be taking on development duties in-house".
The fact is that Gabe Newell, from Valve, repeatedly stated that the PlayStation 3 is such an exotic platform on which to develop games that his company would most likely not have the time and the resources required to port its games. But he left the door open to let third parties take Valve games and release them on the Sony made console.
The Orange Box, Valve's magnum opus, which featured Half Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and the much lauded Portal, was also originally scheduled to be released only on the Xbox 360 and the PC, but publisher Electronic Arts used one of its in-house development teams to port the games to the PS3. The results were less than stellar, with frame rate issues and bugs reported more often on the Sony console than on the other two platforms.
Left 4 Dead, which allows players to take on the role of survivors that need to act as a team to escape a city plagued by zombies, will be released on November 4 if all goes according to plan. If Electronic Arts is just now beginning the work of porting the game, it's unlikely that the PlayStation 3 version will be launched at the same time as the PC and the Xbox 360 versions. But for gamers that favor the Sony made console, it's better to get the game later than never.