Counter-Strike Global Offensive turns 9
Valve’s competitive first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive turned nine today. It remains the most popular game on Steam – slightly bigger than Dota 2, and around four times bigger than the third and fourth place games. Not bad, huh.
Not bad considering Valve isn’t exactly cramming Counter-Strike with new maps and regular weapons. The anniversary was commemorated, for example, with just one tweet:
CS: GO was released 9 years ago today! Whether you’ve played for a day, a week, or all nine years, we’re excited to have you. Thanks for playing! pic.twitter.com/Ue9luHxcQP
– CS: GO (@CSGO) August 21, 2021
I played more of the original Counter-Strike and CS: Source than I did CSGO, but I still have a huge love for each version of the game. If I wanted to race around Dust or enjoy the feel of an August in my hand, CSGO is the one I would turn to.
Therefore, I emphasize that no want Valve to cram Counter-Strike with new stuff. It was exciting to see the original mod grow and change in successive betas, but it is not a hero shooter and it was not built as a basis for perpetual updates. Instead, it was clear early on that the game had struck a balance that didn’t need to constantly change. There’s a reason that both CS: Source and CSGO are in many ways remakes of Counter-Strike 1.0, and playing any version of the game feels like coming home to me.
Nor is it that the game has been ignored. Valve is currently running a $ 1 million gun skin design contest, and they released a subscription statistics tool in May.
I once compared the seemingly timeless rules of Counter-Strike to chess, and some magazine readers rightly scoffed at it. But it’s been more than ten years now, and Counter-Strike persists. There are only about 500 more years left until what I said makes sense, you idiots!
