Left 4 Dead 2 goes free-to-play on Xbox Live next weekend

by Ben Gilbert on Jan 10th 2010 11:30AM

If you've been sitting around on your hands waiting for the next free opportunity to play Left 4 Dead 2 on Xbox Live with your friends, well, we think you're a bit strange and should likely find a better habit. That being said, you'll be happy to hear that the game will be free-to-play for all Xbox Live members (even you lower class Silver folks) next weekend, starting promptly at 12:00PM ET on Friday, January 15, and finishing up on Monday the 18th (also at noon, as confirmed to CVG by Microsoft). We can't imagine that those of you still holding out will be convinced of an Xbox Live Gold account's worth after just one weekend, but it certainly can't hurt, now can it?

Update: The free weekend has been confirmed for Europe only. A Microsoft representative tells Joystiq the company has "nothing to announce at this time" about a North American promotion. When asked if they had a timetable to announce something, the representative politely said that we'll hear something soon one way or another.

Left 4 Dead 2

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Tags: co-op, free-to-play, left-4-dead, left-4-dead-2, Microsoft, multiplayer, online, valve, valve-software, xbl, Xbox-360, xbox-live

Reader Comments (72)

So you can... play during the week?

Not to mention the other 51 weekends of the year.

and the other dozen relevant, online games on the console

I didn't know Joystiq was advertising for Valve and Microsoft.

I'm pretty confident it's relevant to the readers, many of who may only have a silver, so cut yo jibba jabba.

My point is that there are other options to play online without having to subscribe to XBL. For me personally I play my online games strictly on the PS3 because it is free. And if Microsoft is continuing to allow players, regardless of account status, to play online for free, if only for the weekend, then why subscribe to their service if it's free for a limited time anyways? If I really want to play a particular game online then I'll just wait.

In a world of free services (Twitter, Facebook, even online gaming) online subscriptions seem a bit redundant.

It's free like 1 weekend a year, so it's pretty ridiculous to just say "wait until the days it's free and use it then".

People get too caught up in "principles" when there are really none there to defend. It's really simple, do the advantages of XBL give you enough added fun to account for an extra $2 per month? To me, it's worth 10x that, if not more, so there's really no question there. Personally, I feel sorry for the people still stuck playing games while not being part of a community or group because it really increase the fun of videogames by more than I ever imagined possible, but to each his own.

If PSN or PC online gaming cost $10/month and XBL cost $12/month would anyone really care about the $2 difference? Probably not. But because it's "free" vs. $2, that same difference suddenly matters to them because of made up "principles" that have no place here. If sticking to your principles makes you have less fun than you would otherwise, then your principles are stupid. It's really that simple.

the problem with your logic is that PSN and PC users pay nothing. zero. And both have the benefit of community as well.

so what exactly are you ranting about? other than justifying paying for something that others are getting for free?

I'm talking about the features they're missing, which make it much more difficult (and less likely) to be able to play with a group of friends unless you have something pre-scheduled.

Believe me, I have a ps3 and PC (and enjoy both). But it's not the same. Not even close.

On the 360 if I log on I can fill up an 8 player room of L4D or an 8-12 player room of MW2 with just friends in about 2 minutes. On the PS3 it would take MUCH longer (having to send text messages to everyone on their list individually, manage their responses individually, etc) to the point where no one really bothers, and on the PC it is basically impossible unless they're all already in MW2 or L4D or logged onto the same gaming service as me, since there are so many of them.

With XBL I log on, hit the x button to invite them to a party, then we're all magically there chatting and I can just say "hey guys up for some L4D?". If they say yes, one button press and we're all in the room.

PSN doesn't have universal invites, cross-game chat, or party chat. It also has a much smaller community and of those players very few of them have mic's so you can never really communicate with your team.

Yes, it's free, but until all those problems are addressed my online console playing will be on the 360. The arguement that psn is "better" because it's free doesn't hold water because I always have a better experience with xbl than I do with the PSN. Is XBL a rip off compared to free services? Sure. But it's also so much fun to play online on that I'd rather just pay for it and enjoy it than bitch about $3 a month.

I mean shit, Linux is free. And it's great! And it does everything windows can do and more! Do you use linux because it's free, or do you use Windows because it's easier to use and more convenient for you? Or OSX for the same reasons? I'm betting it's one of the latter two.

So there'll be even moor n00bs to pwn?!

:-)

In the words of my friend mr mcphee

"COME!! ... BE MY BITCHES!!"

More like more n00bs to quit after they play as the infected in chapter 2 of a versus game.

They really, really need some kind of XP system in this game if for no other reason than to give people incentive for sticking around through the whole game.

And what made up principles are you talking about? Plus, where are you paying $2 for Xbox Live per month? Over where I'm at it's still $8 per month, $20 for 3 months, or $50 per year.

As for communities the two main locations to communicate is through Xbox.com or through various games online. But even then you would still need to sift through the prepubescent racists to have a good time online or on the chat forums. That's not including the glitching and cheating that goes on in certain games. Sure you have a friends list to chat with friends but you can do that just about anywhere now-a-days without subscribing to a service.

And with all of that said I'll wait 1 weekend a year to play games on the 360 online if it means that I'll save money. Call me cheap, but I don't see the justification of paying extra money on something that is already paid for. Think about it. If you don't subscribe to XBL and choose to be a Silver member Microsoft, and the ad revenue their collecting that is plastered all over the XBL dashboard, still pays for the upkeep to the servers every year. And besides what exactly are you paying for? What your Subscribing to, in reality, is the ability to play online with others. That's it. And again I can do that just about anywhere, on other platforms whether it be on the PS3, Wii, or on the PC.

XBL 1 year subs are regularly available online for $25-$30, which works out to roughly $2 and change per month or less (since a lot of the time they are actually 13 month cards).

As for the rest of your questions, see my post above in response to your other post. It sounds like you just play online with random people, which is unfortunate because playing with people you know makes online gaming a million times more enjoyable, and XBL makes it a million times easier to get games together with people you know who weren't already planning on playing that game or with you. It also makes it much easier to built up a list of people you know to play with. Again, see my post in response to you above, and this would be easier if you used the reply button ;)

Paying 50$ to play on a p2p service is crazy.Ps3 and Pc have dedicated servers and its all free.

PS3 and PC have dedicated servers on SOME games. The 360 also has dedicated servers on SOME (but fewer) games.

For instance, all EA games use dedicated servers on both XBL and PSN. MW2 uses p2p on both XBL and PSN. The big difference is that most of psn's FIRST PARTY games use dedicated servers, but it is in no way a universal thing like you're making it out to be.

On the flipside, XBL has dedicated matchmaking servers that microsoft manages themselves. PSN does not, and leaves the matchmaking servers up to the devs. This is why big PS3 games are typically unplayable online for the first week or so while XBL games usually work fine (after they upgraded them after the Halo 3 release a few years ago). PC games usually don't bother with matchmaking at all so they have no servers for it at all.

I like that the PSN supports dedicated servers, but I'm yet to play a game online that uses them. Both Uncharted 2 and MW2 use P2P on the PS3.

There are a lot of great features that the PS3 has, like Mod support and proper KB/M support, but they are all used so rarely that they're more of a checklist of features to sell you a PS3 than things that actually contribute to enhancing your experience.

So... we can download the whole game for that time?

Whoops nevermind, I misread it.

I guess if you have the demo and are undecided this would be useful. Otherwise, this means nothing to most people that bought L4D2

Someone should tell all us crazy XBL members that we don't really like XBL.

If I could pay $50/year and get the PS3 updates/PS3 game patches to install as quickly, I'd do it in a heartbeat - my PS3 spends way too much time on progress bars, whether it's installing, updating, or uh... installing updates, by the time all the updating is done, I've lost interest...

But, honestly, there's a difference between the XBL experience and PSN (and PC gaming these days). And (for me) it's easily worth the cost. It doesn't matter what it's like on the Wii/PS3/PC/XXXX or any console to come before or that will come after; simply put, right now, it's worth $50 a year for me for what that $50 gets me. I can play MW2 on XBL for $50 a year or free on PSN and I opt for XBL. I can get almost any game for much cheaper on the PC AND play online for free, and I'd STILL rather pay the premium to play on the 360.

If you're happy with the PC experience, or the PS3 experience, great - but don't fool yourself into thinking there aren't legit reasons why many, many, many people opt for XBL.

If you own a game like Left 4 Dead 2, chances are, you already have Xbox Live.

Previous 50 Comments

Left 4 Dead 2 goes free-to-play on Xbox Live next weekend

Left 4 Dead 2

Reader Comments (72)

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 3:47PM kevlar said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 4:16PM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 4:58PM benjaminhc said

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Posted: Jan 10th 2010 4:02PM TOYBOXX said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 4:21PM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 5:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 7:36PM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 11th 2010 12:07AM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 4:07PM Istari Spartan said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 4:22PM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 4:43PM TOYBOXX said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 7:40PM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 6:45PM MonkeyRoach said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 7:43PM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 11th 2010 12:14AM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 6:48PM ThePhantomnaut said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 6:58PM ThePhantomnaut said

Posted: Jan 10th 2010 9:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 11th 2010 2:16AM bradbodily said

Posted: Jan 11th 2010 3:22AM TheE3Guy said

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