'Left 4 Dead 3' release date update: 2017 launch unconfirmed; leak hints at development

Game developers have become very adept at keeping a tight lid on highly anticipated video games and the progress being made on their development. This seems to be true for Valve Corporation, the developer of the cooperative first-person shooter post-apocalyptic video game, "Left 4 Dead."

However, despite the clamp around such guarded information, details just have a way of leaking out online. Fans are fast becoming as skillful in sniffing out such details. It brings pause to consider whether this practice of game companies is a mere ploy to stimulate interest in a certain game's release, as that of "Left 4 Dead 3."

Tristan Reidford, a conceptual artist for Valve, sent fans scurrying last month to get a peek at an image he reportedly leaked of some folders including one with a file name, "Left 4 Dead 3." This was said to have been seem in a certain video tutorial Reidford had posted online. It created such a hubbub, and the image was later replaced.

This was not the first time that "Left 4 Dead 3" information was leaked, as a similar situation turned up in February. That time it was a benchmark tool from Valve which somehow included files on two games tied to the company, "Left 4 Dead 3" and "Half-Life 3." A video was put together on Valve News Network explaining the references to the said games found in the benchmark tool release.

While these leaks do not equate to a "Left 4 Dead 3" release date, it does give fans some hope that the game is indeed under development.

So far, what is known of "Left 4 Dead 3" is that it is played by four players (the usual three-men-one-woman team-up) making their way in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies.

It is predicted that the unconfirmed installment to the "Left 4 Dead" game series will have more ferocious but fresh ways of getting rid of the walking corpses as well as an improved, fluid and satisfying gameplay.

Fans would like to see some character customization, wider map selections, as well as manifold foes to eliminate.

The last iteration of the game came out in 2009, and it is projected that the next title in the series, "Left 4 Dead 3," will release sometime in 2017.