Turtle Rock Studios built its reputation on the 4-player co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead, which was a major hit for Valve and spawned a successful franchise of its own. However, it's been almost a decade since the release of Left 4 Dead 2, and while there have been hints of a third game, nothing official has been announced. Now Turtle Rock is returning to the kind of game that made it famous with Back 4 Blood, a co-op zombie shooter that will be released for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and next-generation consoles in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Unfortunately, details on Back 4 Blood and what exactly it will entail are scarce beyond the fact that it is a co-op zombie shooter with a campaign and PvP elements. Warner Bros. claims the game will "advance the co-op zombie genre forward with innovative multiplayer gameplay," but it remains to be seen what kind of innovations the game will have.

Back 4 Blood design director Chris Ashton seems enthusiastic about the project. "It’s hard to overstate what an awesome opportunity this is. We get to return to a genre that was born in our studio with over ten years of additional experience and zombie ideas racked up in our brains," he said. Ashton also mentioned that Turtle Rock Studios is growing considerably to develop the game.

For those that have been waiting nearly a decade for a new Left 4 Dead, the announcement of Back 4 Blood should be exciting, even though nothing, not even a logo, was shown for the game. However, it's possible that Back 4 Blood has been in development for some time, as Turtle Rock hasn't released a game since 2015's asymmetric multiplayer flop Evolve. Considering this, it's possible that Back 4 Blood has been in the works for at least a couple of years, so perhaps more information on the game will come sooner rather than later.

The fact that Back 4 Blood is in development for next-generation consoles is also exciting, as so far very few developers have acknowledged that they are working on next-gen projects. Perhaps Turtle Rock and Warner Bros. are waiting for Sony and Microsoft to reveal the PS5 and next Xbox before they show more of what Back 4 Blood has in store.

Regardless, Left 4 Dead fans should be excited to see more of Back 4 Blood and how exactly it will evolve the co-op zombie shooter genre.

Back 4 Blood is in development for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and next-generation consoles.