Valve Software said Tuesday that its new zombie-slaying co-op game
Left 4 Dead 2 sold 2 million copies worldwide in its opening two weeks, with sales to date "more than double" the original in a comparable time frame.
Black Friday sales in the U.S. helped push the title past expectations, Valve said. Retailers such as Amazon.com and Valve's own digital storefront Steam held limited-time deals that priced the game at under $40. Valve expects the game to be one of the biggest sellers on both PC and Xbox 360 for 2009.
"
Left 4 Dead 2 is off to a great start with strong support at retail and great reviews from the press," said Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing. "Meanwhile the title has already been played by over 1 million Xbox LIVE Gold account holders, and news regarding
L4D2 DLC 1 is coming very soon."
The original
Left 4 Dead has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, Valve said in September this year. Electronic Arts publishes the game at retail.
The launch of
Left 4 Dead 2 for Xbox 360 and PC was
backed by a $25 million ad campaign, substantially more than the $10 million ad campaign behind 2008's original
Left 4 Dead.
Valve launched
Left 4 Dead 2 on Xbox 360 and PC in the U.S. on November 17. The game launched in Europe and Japan shortly afterwards.
The
Left 4 Dead property debuted just over a year ago, and was originally developed by Orange County-based Turtle Rock Studios, which Valve
purchased while the game was in development.
Left 4 Dead 2 adds new gameplay elements, such as melee combat, new characters and enemies, more campaigns, maps, and new modes.
