At E3 this month Valve made the fanboy baiting announcement that Left 4 Dead 2 would be getting it's release in November of this year, and although they promised exciting new content such as new maps, new zombie bosses, melee combat, chainsaws and more, Steam has seen protest groups start up vowing to boycott the sequel with around 25,000 angry consumers unhappy at the “neglected” original.

Now, we all know the arguments from the Boycott Group, the basis of it being that L4D2 will potentially undermine the original games' worth by having in essence the promised DLC the original was planned to get, also I personally can't help but feel part of the argument for some is wanting something for free. And if you really want to know, then yes I'm with Red Jeans here and I'm looking forward to buying, playing and loving the game when it comes out and can grace my beloved XBox 360. And I'm definitely looking forward to smacking zombies with frying pans and dismembering them with chainsaws.

And, I'm proud of that fact!

Anyway, now I'm down from my over opinionated high horse, Valve have bitten back at the protest and defended their new game as well as promising continued support for L4D, which quite possibly renders the boycotters arguments obsolete.

The following are the words of Valve president Gabe Newell.

"Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve. But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn't - it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago, we see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community."

About the announcement last week he also stated that "E3 is a trade event where developers and publishers come to announce new games for the coming year. L4D2 like any new product requires an appearance at the show."

Gabe Newell confirmed this by saying "Some in the community are concerned that the announcement of L4D2 implied a change in our plans for L4D1. We aren't changing our plans for L4D1."

So it appears that yes, L4D2 is due out in November and hopefully some of the fanboys will be placated by Gabe Newell's words.