Turtle Rock Studios has confirmed that Back 4 Blood’s post-launch plans have come to an end, with no more expansions coming to the co-op zombie shooter.
The team’s statement reads:
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.
The game will naturally still be playable for the foreseeable future, with Back 4 Blood currently available as part of the PlayStation Plus Extra and Xbox Game Pass game subscriptions. We anticipate that the studio will also still make bug fixes as needed.
Originally launched in October 2021, the game was supported with a number of free updates to add features and answer community requests, but the post-launch roadmap was really built around three major DLC expansions that launched over the following year. The last of these, River of Blood, arrived in December, with a new five map story campaign that introduced new companion Tala and her Ridden companion Jeff. This was alongside a free Trial of the Worm co-op PvE mode, built around running through player-determined chains of maps with various modifiers added into the mix.
Looking to put a fresh spin on the Left 4 Dead formula that Turtle Rock pioneered as part of Valve, we reviewed Back 4 Blood at launch, with Nick came away with some decidedly mixed feelings:
“I so badly want to love Back 4 Blood, but its grindy nature and difficulty spikes out of nothing let it down, leaving you with a bad taste in your mouth. It has potential for those in it for the long haul, accumulating cards and building specialised decks to match the challenge, but right now I just have no desire to go back 4 more.”
Not a ringing endorsement, but as mentioned above, the game has had a number of updates since then, adding fan-requested (nay, demanded!) features like offline play, rebalanced cards, and has that trio of big expansions.
We look forward to seeing what Turtle Rock has planned next.
