Back 4 Blood, released in late 2021, to stop receiving content updates

Turtle Rock Studios ends Back 4 Blood post-launch content support as it shifts focus to next title

"It's time for us to put our heads down, get back in the lab, and get to work on the next big thing."

After three expansions, Back 4 Blood post-launch content support has come to an end as developer Turtle Rock Studios shifts its focus towards its next project, the studio said in a message published today.

“Turtle Rock Studios is actually pretty small for a studio making AAA games,” the message reads. “We don’t have quite enough folks to continue working on Back 4 Blood content while we spin up another game—yes, another game! Given this, it’s time for us to put our heads down, get back in the lab, and get to work on the next big thing.”

Get the full message below.

Greetings, Cleaners!

What an amazing year 2022 was for us. First off, we wanted to thank all of you for making Back 4 Blood what it is today. With three expansions—“Tunnels of Terror,” “Children of the Worm,” and “River of Blood”—we’ve traveled on a fantastic adventure together beyond the walls of Fort Hope. This phase of our war against the Ridden now comes to a close.

Turtle Rock Studios is actually pretty small for a studio making AAA games. We don’t have quite enough folks to continue working on Back 4 Blood content while we spin up another game—yes, another game! Given this, it’s time for us to put our heads down, get back in the lab, and get to work on the next big thing.

Intrepid Cleaners, this is not a goodbye.

Back 4 Blood will continue to operate, of course. In fact, Back 4 Blood is currently offered on PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium tiers and available as part of Xbox Game Pass. You’ll also still find us hanging out in the subreddit and on Discord, as well as our official Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and website because we love interacting with you and talking about our games.

While we may be a bit quieter in the short-term, we promise that we’ll be Back, bigger, bolder and better than ever!

With much love and gratitude,
Turtle Rock Studios

Back 4 Blood is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, as well as via PlayStation Plus Extra and Xbox Game Pass.

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/02/turtle-rock-studios-ends-back-4-blood-post-launch-content-support-as-it-shifts-focus-to-next-title

What do you think of this title being canned so early? It made huge promises it never really delivered on. I can't imagine the player count for this game is high in 2023 and that is probably why they are moving on.

So 1.5 years of updates. Not great. I'm glad I got it on GamePass.

Indeed, and it was hyped up before release as being supported for a long while.

On December 6th, 2022, the third and final expansion, "River of Blood" was released.

Played it briefly via Game Pass. Seemed ok but didn’t really stick with it long enough to form much of opinion on it. Their game before that was Evolve which didn’t stick around long either.

Maybe they should have not release it day one on Gamepass

@gotgames: How and why is it the fault of Game Pass for this especially when the dev themselves say that this is because they want to work on their next big game? Is the game being offered on PS Plus Extra and Premium also to blame? Do these services affect Steam and Epic?

@Archangel3371: I don’t blame Gamepass for starters, i haven’t played the game and from what i have seen its online oriented game which should be supported for more then 4 years in my opinion especially if players bought the game. From my experience having PS Premium which i upgraden for 50$ for the whole year I barely finish any game and keep jumping from game to game never completing any game which is why I will not continue my subscription once it done, i think people buying the game are more like to play games longer, complete them or create a fanbase for the game,

Been playing it co-op on PS Plus. Fun to mess around on. Not spending any money on it though.

@gotgames: Saying, “Maybe they should have not release it day one on Gamepass” is very much inferring that you are blaming Game Pass and only that as you never mentioned PS Plus Extra and Premium. Perhaps you should have elaborated much more in that initial post.

Is it that bad? Guess if they promised X/Y/Z crap (or cared about the game) be upset.

But generally 1.5+ years of content seems pretty decent to me.

didn't even bother finishing the base game. was pretty underwhelming

@Archangel3371: yeah the developer of the game made that choice not MS, so i really don’t get where you get the idea that i am blaming Gamepass, i did not say its Gamepass fault or Gamepass is to blame, all I said they “by that i meant the developer “ should have not put the game on Gamepass day one, back for blood didn’t release day one on PS Premium they just released it this month i believe

@gotgames: Same difference whether you want to blame the developer for putting the game on Game Pass day one or blame Game Pass “specifically”. 😐

Regardless they didn’t even say that they were not going to be putting out more content for it based on performance. They said that they wanted to focus on their next big game. 🤷‍♂️

I finished the campaign a few times but unlike Left 4 Dead I don't want to keep replaying until I get to absolute 100% perfect runs.

I finished the river of blood one and it was well crafted.

But everything Turtle Rock studio added on top of Valve's work wasn't for the better. Gone was the AI director. And instead we got an rng card based system, which should've got axed after the first playtests came in

Not a bad game, not a classic either.

It's just content updates so I don't see what's a big deal about it! It's not like they are shutting down the servers or anything.

Good, it sucked. Make something better.

How the hell did this thread become an argument about GamePass

@mysticaldonut: Xbox fanboy is delusional just because someone mentioned Gamepass they go defense mode, i know fanboys

@Archangel3371: yeah they are done supporting the game with new content, if they had 1 million players do you really think they would move on from the game or continue supporting it. Which is understandable if they are not making enough money

Like i said maybe just maybe if they didn’t do day one on Gamepass their sales would have been better on Xbox, and I already explained my experience with PS Premium barley finish any game just keep moving to the next game, and people who purchase games are more likely to give a game few try’s before they sell it or get ripped off by gamestop, nobody is blaming GamePass for a game that was dead on arrival,

My favorite L4D clone is now Vermintide ATM. Still haven't even touch Back 4 Blood. Turtle Rock should just work out a deal with Valve to release a Left 4 Dead remaster collection on modern systems wirh all its DLC, cross-play, and maybe bring with it a load of popular mods. That Telletubies mod alone would get me to play it.

@gotgames: Assming that is the reason how is this because of Game Pass. The game is on multiple platforms and is now on PS Plus Extra and Premium as well. It also sells extra content for the game on those services. If they are indeed not bringing any content because of the reason you are assuming it isn’t because of GP, it’s because of people’s lack of interest in the game in general.

@mysticaldonut: Why are you asking me? @gotgames was the one who brought it up. 🤷‍♂️

I almost bought this game at launch, after seeing them stop delivering updates so soon I am glad I passed on it.

@Archangel3371: for starters back for blood was released on October 12 2021 and was available on Gamepass day one on Xbox and PC, on January 2023 the game came to PS premium plenty of time to sell the game and build a fanbase, maybe if they didn’t release day one on Gamepass their sales would have been better and maybe people who purchase the game are more willing to give a game few more tries before they give up on it, like i already explained my experience with PS premium, on subscription services you try a game if you don’t like in 1h you move on,

@gotgames: All you seem to have is a bunch of “maybes” and assumptions for a game that is sold on numerous other platforms and services. All those other platforms have a much greater install base the the number of Game Pass subscribers yet somehow you feel that it’s because the game was available day one on GP that was the reason why this game isn’t getting any more content. The developer has simply said that they wanted to move on to their next game. Seems pretty straightforward to me. 🤷‍♂️

@Archangel3371: well what part of maybe they should have not released day one on Gamepass didn’t you understand and I am just assuming and i already explained the thing about subscription services, yes they want to move on their next game because back 4 blood failed, game is online focused and average they have 3000 players yeah i would have want to move on to next big thing too, i really wish Sony And MS would release daily player count like steam

@gotgames: How did Game Pass affect the game’s sales on the other platforms?

How did Gamepass affect the performance on PC and PS systems?

@Archangel3371: really self explanatory, it didn’t, Gamepass didn’t affect any sales on PlayStation because it’s not available on PlayStation, back 4 blood will see increase in active users because it was released on PS+ but will drop because i already explained my experience with PlayStation premium

@gotgames: So you really have nothing to indicate that Game Pass was a problem for this game and is the reason for the developer moving on to their next game. It’s all been cleared up for me now. Thanks. 👍😁

It was painfully mediocre, end of story. L4D hit and was such a phenomenal time but trying to recreate it so many times over the years really drags the style of game down.

We need more of an evolution. And definitely not something that feels generic in gameplay and art/graphics.

@Archangel3371: I never said Gamepass was the problem I said maybe they should have not released it day one on Gamepass

@gotgames: Maybe they got more benefit from releasing day one on Game Pass then if they hadn’t. Maybe they already planned on this roadmap of content for the game all along. Guess we’ll never know. 🤷‍♂️

i never heard of this before...

but by god... i will play that mode now. with some doom music.

Game was not good :/

But I also hate when a game tries to implement a load out system it doesn't really need *cough cough Deathloop* just makes the whole experience way more complicated than it needs to be.

This studio seemed like a slam dunk back in the L4D days, but they haven't made a relevant game since....?

I just finished the campaign and I don't really need more. Fun game, but the difficulty is way too unbalanced. You can breeze through most levels just fine, but there are a few moments where you need to summon the horde and it gets WAY too difficult.

In what way is this being canned? Is the game being taken offline? Is there a lack of maps to play on? A lack of content?

No? Then what's the issue?

Honestly I think this is one of the biggest problems with modern game development. They feel like they need to keep people on the hook, baited with a constant slow drip of content updates. I'd rather developer release fully fleshed-out games with lots of good maps than release a half-done game with content updates.

Would much prefer they get back to work on something new and hopefully better.

If they want to release modding tools to the community, even better. Then we can make our own content.

Don't see Redfall doing too well knowing this game tanked and was multiplatform.

They made big promises prior to launch...they also said the game would capture the spirit of Left 4 Dead. But we all know how that turned out.

@kvallyx: 🤕

Ahh didn't know that they promised more content.

TBH I only played it at release for a few hours; thought it was good, just not good enough to distract me from other games. I wasn't aware there was a lack of content at release, though.

*sigh*

I wish developers would just make games complete at release, like outside of support and bug smashing obviously. You know? Just give us a game with enough content we can't complain about.