As I see it -deject wrote:I don't see why they'd completely abandon L4D 1 seeing as they're still updating TF2...
Because TF is going strong but L4D isn't so much.
TF is probably easier to produce maps, weapons, upgrades, achievements and general stuff for. I think this purely because it's a less involved and far less story driven game. It gives players nothing but the new content.
L4D needs AI director updates and constant re-runs of new mini-campaigns to tweak and balance everything, this process is far more involving and they may have decided to re-write a whole new way of adapting the AI to maps and use that code base instead.
Because to have L4D2 as apparently complete as they do they've either used an entirely new team, or stopped working on L4D quite quickly.
I don't know any of this but it's what I gather from the very little I know or see. I won't blindly bash on valve because they've produced epic works of gaming art time and again and they've forced revolution in how games are sold and stored etc. But this feels like a low point, it feels like they've reneged on promises and it's a bit of a shock to see them apparently do an EA.
Judging by the way L4D2 looks, I'd say they began working on it as soon as L4D was out.
