Turtle Rock Studios, Inc.

Overview

Turtle Rock Studios is a US game development studio founded in March 2002 by Michael Booth. The company initially worked on several Counter-Strike versions independently. These include the Xbox version (2003), the reworked Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004) and various maps for Counter-Strike: Source (2004). Booth was also responsible for the game's official AI bot.

On 20th November 2006 the studio announced its first entirely original title, the co-op multiplayer shooter Left 4 Dead. On 10th January 2008 the studio was acquired by Valve Corporation and renamed Valve South. The team worked together with the main Valve team to complete the game. It was released in November 2008.

In June 2009 is was confirmed Valve South no longer operated as an office. Several members moved to Bellevue, Washington, but Booth declined and remained in Irvine, California. The sequel Left 4 Dead 2, released in November 2009, was developed entirely by the main Valve development team without involvement of Valve South.

On 5th February 2010 the studio's website was relaunched and Booth announced to have reformed the company once again as Turtle Rock Studios with the remaining developers.

In June 2010 the establishment of Turtle Rock Garage was announced, a division focused on casual and experimental games for platforms such as iPhone, Facebook and Xbox Live.

On 26th May 2011 THQ announced to have signed the studio's next major title.

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