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Fans of 2008 first-person smash Left 4 Dead have reacted strongly to last week's news of a sequel, calling for a boycott to the new game in response to Valve's perceived lack of commitment to the original game.

At the time of writing some 15,000 fans have registered their disdain on a Steam Community Group, (thanks, videogaming24/7) asking that 'Left 4 Dead 2 not be released as a stand-alone, full-priced sequel but as either a free update to Left 4 Dead or an expansion with full compatibility with basic Left 4 Dead owners.'

The news of a sequel for Left 4 Dead goes against Valve's typical practice, wherein titles are often in gestation for long periods and given extensive post-release support.

Valve's VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi reacted to the news in an interview late last week, telling RockPaperShotgun, 'There's more content coming for Left 4 Dead in the fairly near term, that I think will sort of add to this picture and hopefully change some people's opinions of what's happening right now.'

Chet Faliszek, writer of Left 4 Dead 2, concurred with Lombardi in an interview with Videogamer.com, stating, "It was just like, OK, this is big enough that this isn't DLC, we're not going to be able to leak it out. It's a cohesive, single thing. It's Left 4 Dead 2."

According to Faliszek, there are still additional updates coming for the original Left 4 Dead, so the shift of attention to the sequel won't completely leave fans in the dust. "We still have updates coming. Our focus is always on what we're putting in the box, put as much as we can in the box. Let's not worry about: let's save that and not put that in the game. No, let's put that in. And with the five campaigns, all of them out of the box, playable Versus, co-op, Survival and the new mode, there's just a ton of content in there."

Left 4 Dead was one of 2008's highlights, earning a 9.2 when reviewed back in November. The sequel relocates the action to the Deep South, as well as adding frying pans and chainsaws into the mix - which all sounds like an awful lot of fun.