It's strange to think about in hindsight, but Left 4 Dead 2 was a controversial game in the run-up to its release in November 2009—just one year after the original Left 4 Dead laid the foundations for today's enormous cooperative gaming scene. Indeed, it was that rapid turnaround, combined with the fact that the first Left 4 Dead was a relatively short game, which led to accusations that Left 4 Dead 2 was nothing more than a cynical ploy by Valve to cash in on the success of the first.

Ultimately, Left 4 Dead 2 would prove a worthy follow-up to Valve's cooperative blaster. But it turns out there was some skulduggery afoot behind the scenes on Left 4 Dead 2, just not the kind that fans suspected. Shortly before the sequel's launch, a cinematic trailer—which would ultimately serve as Left 4 Dead 2's introductory cutscene—leaked onto the Internet. Now, it's been revealed that this 'leak' was orchestrated by Valve to evade the censorious watch of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

This is according to former Valve writer and Left 4 Dead designer Chet Faliszek, who revealed Valve's deliberate leak in a YouTube video about cut Left 4 Dead voice lines (via Ars Technica). In the video, Faliszek explains why Left 4 Dead 2 had a large number of voice lines cut from the final game. One reason was that, at the time, Valve had run-ins with numerous countries and ratings boards over the series' depictions of violence and use of profane language.

"You have to remember, especially during Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 time, Valve was in fights with the ESRB, with Australia, with Germany, with a bunch of countries about the profanity in the game, or the violence," he explains. "One of [Valve's] lawyers stepped in and said that us writers needed to be babysat on this. And so [the] first thing we did was, well, we made sure there was no profanity in there that crosses the line—basically F-bombs."

Faliszek personally believed that, when it comes to censorship of language and depictions of violence, "you push it and have the ESRB push back". But Valve's lawyer felt differently and Faliszek went along with it. However, the ESRB's regulatory oversight didn't just cover games, but extended to the marketing material for those games. And unlike today, the ESRB had different regulatory rules for trailers and games. Language or violence that might land a game a 'Mature' rating could result in a trailer that depicted the same things being banned outright.

It's this exact scenario Valve faced with Left 4 Dead 2. The cinematic trailer is no more violent or foul-mouthed than the game itself, but according to Faliszek, the ESRB drew a hard line on it. Hence, Valve decided the trailer should find its way online by 'accident'. "We leaked our trailer ahead of time, because they wouldn't let us release the trailer," Faliszek says. "I'll just admit that. I think we can't get in trouble for that now. It's like 20 years ago."

Despite critical acclaim and a slew of Emmy nominations, Spider-Noir will not be returning for a second season at Prime Video.

Per Deadline, it seems like Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television expected bigger streaming numbers when making their decision. But given recent reports that the first season's budget was somewhere around $400 million, I can see why the studios might've needed the show to become a megahit in order to justify spending that money on a second season.

Amazon and Sony are still moving ahead with their multi-title deal to use IP from Sony's Universe of Marvel characters. You might remember that the first Spider-Man spin-off, Silk: Spider-Society, was ultimately canceled before entering production. Spider-Noir is now the second canceled project... and there's a third on the way. According to Deadline, there are still multiple projects on development, and one is "nearing a series order." Details are, of course, being kept under wraps.

Spider-Noir saw Nicolas Cage as a jaded, down-on-his-luck private detective version of Ben Reilly aka the Spider, who finds himself returning to superheroism and going up against classic Rogue Gallery villains like Sandman and Silvermane. The series has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with our own Spider-Noir review praising the show's originality and Cage's excellent and equally odd acting choices.

Spider-Noir is streaming now in both black-and-white and in color on Prime Video. For more, check out our Spider-Noir review, or if you're still confused about how Spider-Noir is connected to the Spider-Verse movies, we've got the answer.

After a quiet few months, September finally hits the gas, and our list of monthly PC game happenings is filled with brand new adventures, series continuations, 1.0 updates, and events galore. I'm still playing catch-up after Gamescom, and now we've got Tokyo Game Show queued up soon. It's the same schedule every year, but somehow I'm always caught off guard.

The Blood of Dawnwalker kicked off the month with a delightfully dismal vampire RPG from the Witcher veterans at Rebel Wolves. Then you've got all month to suck blood as Coen (or be a good two-shoes and abstain, I guess) before Silent Hill: Townfall and Control Resonant launch on the same damn day. It seems everything I've been waiting all year to play has crammed into this 4-week window, and that's not even counting all the big updates.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is easily among the most notable updates, and everyone who owns the original gets the RPG's makeover for free (along with its DLC). It'll be my first time playing, so between that and Valheim 1.0, I'll be plenty busy until 2027.

September 2026 PC Gamer highlights

September 2026 gaming events and sales

• PAX West begins its four-day weekend of panels, concerts, and tournaments on September 4
• Blizzcon returns—with a suspicious gap in its schedule where something StarCraft-shaped might go—on September 12
• Tokyo Game Show hosts its longest show yet with a new five-day schedule starting September 17
• Our very own PC Gaming Show returns for another Tokyo special on September 20
• Game Devs of Color Expo kicks off both online and in-person panels and showcases on September 22
• And themed Steam sales keep the month going:
  • Aug. 3 – Sept. 7: Survival Crafting Fest
  • Sept. 17 – 20: Programming Fest
  • Sept. 14 – 21: Party-Based RPG Fest

September 2026 game updates and DLC

The September 2026 games calendar

September game releases, events, and updates all in one big calendar

I've hit the highlights, but there's still other new games, updates, and industry events planned for September. Here's what all of that looks like in a handy, consolidated reference: