Despite releasing almost eight years ago, Counter Strike: Global Operations (CS:GO) continues to attract millions of players every month, and remains an esports fan favorite. Speculation has been brewing for many years that the multiplayer first-person shooter will be upgraded to the newer Source 2 engine in order to improve the dated graphics and allow for better gameplay mechanics. However, a new statement from a long-time Valve fan, with a reliable reputation for leaks and information, reveals that the update "is not happening."
Valve News Network owner Tyler McVicker made the comments during a twitch stream, to the disappointment of many watching. He stated that due to the sheer amount of work involved in allowing Counter-Strike community content to be ported, Valve held a meeting and "made a decision" not to continue with the port, "As of now, it's not happening. They're not going to do it." It's simply "too much work" for Valve to justify putting into an engine update that otherwise would be fairly uncomplicated.
CS:GO was released in 2012, using the Source engine, designed back in 2004 by Valve. McVicker claims that Valve have had an updated build of CS:GO in Source 2 for two years, but with eight years worth of prolific community made content being a core part of the game experience, the complexity of an update is about far more than just the game itself. However, he also suggested that the decision could change in the future, but only if Valve ever find a way to easily port the community content.
After eight years of popularity, the now free-to-play CS:GO had been experiencing a slow decline in users until the COVID-19 lockdowns, which helped the game experience a huge spike in popularity, even reaching 1.3 million concurrent players in April 2020. With such a dedicated fan base, it's not surprising that CS:GO has built up an incredible amount of community made maps, weapons finishes, game modes, and more. These are a huge part of the CS:GO experience that players come back for, so it makes sense that Valve would want to avoid any update that breaks compatibility.
The question remains as to where Valve will go next with CS:GO. It may continue looking for a way to port content and upgrade the game, or it may look to create a new version of the game, and hope that the community transfers over. Given the recent boost in popularity, and the continued success of the game in the esports arena. The least risky approach would be to keep working on a way to update the entire CS:GO experience, community content and all.
However, if a solution to the porting problem continues to elude Valve, then perhaps gamers will eventually see an entirely new version of CS:GO. Either that, or perhaps the game will remain successful for years to come, 2012 graphics and all.
CS:GO is available on Linux, Mac, and PC
Source: Dexerto