Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular games on Steam, but that hasn’t stopped rumors that the game will soon receive a major update that will transform it overnight. According to a new report from journalist Richard Lewis, sources have confirmed that the “Counter-Strike 2” theory is indeed real and that the expected release date for the beta is March or early April.
The report suggests that this new game will run on the Source 2 engine, rather than the old Original Source engine that supported Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It will feature an improved matchmaking system and 128 marker servers, aiming to compete with its major rival in the competitive shooter space, Valorant.
It’s unclear if the two versions of Counter-Strike will co-exist or if Valve plans to pull Overwatch and replace the original Global Offensive entirely. It’s also possible that the move to Source 2 will require a higher minimum spec to run well.
Counter-Strike 2 will actually be the fifth Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike was originally a third-party mod for Valve’s popular game, Half Life. Those developers and the rights to the IP were purchased by Valve in 2000, before launching the mod as a standalone title that year.
4 years later, Turtle Rock Studios will make the original Counter-Strike 2 with Counter-Strike, Condition Zero, with Valve also releasing a remake of the first game later that year built using the new Source engine. at that time.
While Counter-Strike has always had a large following, it wasn’t until 2012’s Global-Offensive that the series truly became a hit, with it regularly topping Steam’s monthly charts by volume. players and is second only to PUBG: Battlegrounds in terms of concurrent players.
Another multiplayer FPS game coming to Steam is Arkane’s Redfall, but that’s not the only store where the title will be released. Starting May 2, Redfall will also be available on the Xbox Store, both on console and PC for purchase or via Game Pass, as well as the Epic Games Store.
Sometimes, when a multiplayer game has a cross-platform release like this, such as last year’s Warhammer 40K: Darktide, players are split by storefront. I myself, despite being able to play Darktide through a PC Game Pass subscription last fall, had to get a copy of the game via Steam simply because my friends are a bunch of hard-core trysts from refused to play any PC games on any other platform, which really made me rethink some of those friendships.
