We did not necessarily imagine that a sequel to Counter-Strike, a founding multiplayer video game, for a long time the only master in its realm: that of the competitive shooter. However, this is what Valve, the owner of the brand, has just done with a series of tweets published on Wednesday March 22 and seen several million times in one hour.
Without necessarily dwelling on the historical dimension of this announcement, Valve, of which each of the rare new games is an event, was content to share three videos, with very concrete but surprisingly unspectacular information. In the first of them, for example, a voice-over explains very learnedly how the smoke from the grenades will spread in Counter-Strike 2.
Today we’re excited to announce Counter-Strike 2. Counter-Strike 2 is an overhaul to every system, every piece of c… https://t.co/vVznnh3lag
The American studio thus puts an end to weeks of rumors. Players had indeed spotted files referring to a certain “CS2” in recent Valve game updates. Others were moved by the fact that one of the official Twitter accounts of Counter-Strike had changed its banner to display a new logo.
On its official websiteValve now specifies that Counter-Strike 2 will be released in the summer of 2023, but that a test phase will allow ” from today (…) to a handful of players (…) to evaluate some of the functionalities” of the future game.
Almost a quarter of a century of history
Originally developed by fans as a modification of the video game Half-Life (1998), the original version of Counter-Strikereleased in 1999, allowed two teams (terrorists and counter-terrorists) to compete in different levels, each having to exterminate the other or fulfill objectives.
Technical, precise and free, Counter-Strike immediately became the king of cybercafés and LAN parties (groups of PC gamers), to the point of establishing itself as one of the first references of a fledgling e-sports scene.
Acquired in 2000 by Valve, the developer of Half-Life, Counter-Strike then became a commercial video game, updated by a professional studio and regularly rewarded with new versions (Counter-Strike : Condition Zero et Counter-Strike : Source in 2004) which will not scratch the popularity of the original game. Only the release, in 2012, of Counter-Strike : Global Offensivedesigned for e-sport and compatible with consoles, will eventually make the ancestor look old.
Even today, and despite the now comparable or even occasionally greater popularity of newer and often more accessible games (Fortnite Battle Royale released in 2017, Apex Legends in 2019 or Valuing in 2020), the very demanding and quite arid Counter-Strike : Global Offensive remains the most played title on Steam, Valve’s all-powerful online video game store.
