Image: Valve
Valve is teasing players about Counter-Strike 2, but when are they getting a release date?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players have been subjected to an onslaught of leaks and rumours that insist Counter-Strike 2 is launching this month, and Valve is just adding more fuel to the fire. The developer has updated the official CS:GO Twitter account’s banner image with a fresh new banner, further teasing fans that an announcement is on the way.
Here’s what the new banner looks like:
Versus the old banner:
While the old banner looked like some simple Counter-Strike-themed artwork, the new banner looks like an all-new logo for CS:GO. Valve might be in need of one considering that recent trademark leaks all but confirm Counter-Strike 2’s impending launch, which could happen as soon as this week.
The new project could be a simple Source 2 port of CS:GO or an entirely new entry in the Counter-Strike franchise, although the former is more likely considering that files found in Steam’s backend and NVIDIA drivers contain labels like ‘CS2’ and ‘CS:GOS2’. Fun fact: a file was even found labelled ‘left4dead3’, but we wouldn’t pin too much hope on that one.
Valve has moved on to using the Source 2 engine since 2015, so a CS:GO port to the current engine has been a long time coming. It’s by far the company’s most-played game on Steam, and DOTA 2 was ported over to Source 2 years ago. Porting CS:GO over to Source 2 could come with a number of visual and performance upgrades, and open things up so that map creators have more tools at their disposal to create content for the game.
Leakers have reported that Valve is planning to drop Counter-Strike 2 in some form of beta by the end of the month, so we have two more weeks to find out what all the fuss is about.