Video Games

Counter-Strike 2 release date possibly hinted at by Valve

Cheeky as always

Marco Wutz

Counter-Strike 2 release date possibly hinted at by Valve
Counter-Strike 2 release date possibly hinted at by Valve /

As if 2023 wasn’t already packed enough with releases of fantastic video games, we may even experience an absolute rarity in the industry: the launch of a new game by Valve. We are talking, of course, about Counter-Strike 2, which is currently available for a select user base to try out in the Counter-Strike 2 playtest. On September 20, 2023, Valve asked on social media: “What are you doing next Wednesday?”

The company added a screenshot of that post to the banner above the Counter-Strike account there, reinforcing the hint. While Valve has been known to troll followers and be cheeky on social media, this sure seems like a real hint at the Counter-Strike 2 release date, which would fall on September 27, 2023, if the upcoming Wednesday would indeed be the day of launch.

Fans of the hardcore tactical first-person shooter are up in a frenzy due to this post in any case.

CS2 will feature several new mechanics differentiating it from previous versions of the popular series, but keeps its main mechanics intact. Players will be able to keep their items from current iteration Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in CS2, an important point for a community that’s big time into skins. Speaking of the devil: Grenade skins will be one of the additions to the fresh title, giving players another thing to customize themselves with – and Valve another avenue of profit.

Valve also remedied one of its greatest crimes present in CS:GO by taking out the awful buying wheel, which was initially put in due to the game being released on consoles as well. For CS2, the developers implemented a proper buying menu and added the option to refund weapons in a match. This was one of the changes fans clamored for the most over the years. Alongside these changes, CS2 features sub-tick servers that will make playing online even better and give more integrity to online competitions. Smoke mechanics have been reworked as well, which is one the biggest mechanical and gameplay changes found in CS2.

CS2 will replace CS:GO, being a Source 2 upgrade of the game released in 2012. Valve said that the release of the game would fall into the Summer 2023 window, so a launch towards the end of September would fulfill that promise, albeit cut things a little bit close. 

It’ll be a free-to-play game available on PC via Steam.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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