Amidst swirling speculation, the rumor mill has churned out the possibility that Counter-Strike 2 may be on the horizon shortly. Although it’s of the utmost importance to remain skeptical and await authoritative confirmation, this has certainly created a buzz in the gaming community.
Richard Lewis, a renowned scribe and orator in the Counter-Strike sphere, has reportedly been given proof from anonymous conduits that Valve is ramping up to roll out a novel iteration of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in the imminent future and that a trial version could become available any day now or in April.
This project, with a speculated working title of Counter-Strike 2, has been whispered to have been in the works for some time. Lewis hints that its development has been a priority for Valve, one of the reasons why the current version of CS:GO has been largely overlooked lately.
According to various reports, Counter-Strike 2 will be running on the Source 2 engine, an upgrade that could potentially bring forth improved optimization and enhanced graphical fidelity. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the game will feature 128-tick servers, a value that represents the speed at which a game’s server can process information.
Matchmaking will also be improved in this updated adaptation, and Valve appears confident that third-party services won’t be essential to arrange players in a more expeditious manner.
Sources suggest that “Counter Strike 2” is close to being released, though its uncertain what this would mean for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and its competitive sphere. Lewis highlights Dota 2’s switch to Source 2 with the advent of “Dota 2 Reborn”, which existed side-by-side with the original title until they were eventually assimilated.
Further clues have been uncovered by the illustrious Gabe Follower 2, who reported that the latest NVIDIA drivers included support for an unrecognized application executable named ‘csgos2.exe’ and ‘cs2.exe’. Could this be a sign that a new iteration of Counter-Strike is imminent?
Gabe Follower 2 alleges that they possess “reliable intelligence” suggesting Valve has been secretly trialing CS:GO on Source 2 with the aid of third-party quality assurance firms situated in the US and EU since at least early December. Although this rumor is unable to be corroborated, it appears to have sufficient credibility to share it with the public.
They also assert that this purported “update” “won’t be a completely new game, nor a Counter-Strike sequel, nor even a rebrand – just a CS:GO Source 2.
And rest assured, your skins are safe; they will be accessible in the latest version.
Something weird just happened. Latest NVIDIA drivers introduced support for unknown app executables called “csgos2.exe” and “cs2.exe”. Why project is called Counter-Strike 2 and what are you cooking @csgo? https://t.co/U9YKlAjwgy pic.twitter.com/PU8Op9uGLq
— Gabe Follower 2 (@gabefollower) March 1, 2023
Taking all this with a grain of salt is essential, especially when it comes to less concrete whispers in the air about what is or isn’t in the works. Thankfully, it appears we won’t be left hanging in limbo for too long to find out if this particular conjecture is correct.
Despite being released over eight years ago, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive still stands as a veritable juggernaut in the Steam sphere, boasting an impressive 583,156 concurrent players, dwarfing its closest competitor, Dota 2, which can only round up a meager 262,745 players.
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Adam Bankhurst is a journalist who reports on the latest developments in the entertainment world for IGN. Follow his intriguing journey on social media with @AdamBankhurst on Twitter and Twitch.
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