Counter-Strike: Global Offensive official

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 12 August, 2011

Mac, PC, PSN and XBLA early next year.

Valve has announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, due out on PC, Mac (via Steam), PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade early 2012.

As rumoured earlier today, the game features new maps, characters and weapons. According to Valve, it "delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc)".

On top of that, you'll get new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leaderboards and more. Valve did not mention whether it is free to play.

"Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999," said Valve marketing chief Doug Lombardi.

"For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise.

"CS: GO promises to expand on the CS' award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac."

Global Offensive is being developed by Defense Grid: The Awakening creator Hidden Path Entertainment in collaboration with Valve.

And Eurogamer is delighted to announce that the game will be playable at Eurogamer Expo 2011 next month.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (53) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Jodo #1 10 months ago

    Odd that they are still going through an ongoing Beta for the existing CS:Source but then announce this one...

  • Gearskin #2 10 months ago

    Playable? SWEET! The Expo listing is looking really, really great this year, peeps!

  • Climhazzard #3 10 months ago

    Sounds good, hopefully xbox version will be good.

  • estel #4 10 months ago

    @Jodo Not necessarily. CS1.6 has had plenty of updates since the release of Source.

  • Rosswell #5 10 months ago

    Shortly in this section it will be full of the always asked "Wheres Half-Life 2 Episode 3" comments.

  • SneakyGun #6 10 months ago

    Wheres Half-Life 2 Episode 3

  • SASking #7 10 months ago

    I'm confused. It says it's out in PC, Mac and next gen consoles early 2012? Next gen consoles wont be out by then so...?

  • SASking #8 10 months ago

    I'm hoping this is not out for this gen of consoles, and in fact it's out on PC early 2012 and a later date when next gen is here. I don't want a console port :(

    @ SneakyGun Valve have dropped the episodic format. So there will not be a episode 3. Just a full half life game.

  • themorganator #9 10 months ago

    the queues to play this at the expo are going to be massive!

  • SneakyGun #10 10 months ago

    @SASking

    Hehe I know, I was just toying a bit with Rosswell's comment :p.

    Awesome news btw, for me I never played CS but I ofcourse heard alot about it. If I would buy Source now I would get owned by the better players. If they do the matchmaking right, I could join games with people of the same skill AND while still keeping the ability to choose servers, more experienced players can still have the same experience they had with 1.6 and Source!
    Edited by SneakyGun at 13/08/11 @ 23:59

  • TheBoyChris #11 10 months ago

    Wow - yes, yes and yes.

  • cw- #12 10 months ago

    This is a somewhat disappointing announcement, hardly any info at all.. hopefully more to come over the next few weeks, leading up to the expo

  • Xardan #13 10 months ago

    I can imagine this selling like hotcakes on XBLA, question is will all the Call of Duty kiddies flock to it?

  • Haloboy #14 10 months ago

    Global :o

  • dllord #15 10 months ago

    Loved a bit of cs on xb live on the original xb!

  • GooseUK #16 10 months ago

    call of duty kiddies will be all over this on XBLA and PSN, then they will leave immediately.

  • Hamalot97 #17 10 months ago

    Instabuy

  • TheEarlOfZinger #18 10 months ago

    I'm interested.

  • aphex187 #19 10 months ago

    PSN and XBL? oh the misery.......

  • Phantom_Dynamite #20 10 months ago

    ^ fucking hell just play it on PC like everyone else but don't bemoan people getting to have a blast on PsN and XBLA

  • ThePissartist #21 10 months ago

    COD's inspiration.

    I loved this game, almost as much as I love COD now.

  • Gearskin #22 10 months ago

    Okay, who the heck tried to DOWN my earlier comment about the Expo line up looking good? You are a spaz?

  • Xardan #23 10 months ago

    ^That would be hilarious if true, imagine those poor PS3 players having to play against PC users. They would get annihilated. Looks like your trolling backfired.

  • chessboxer #24 10 months ago

    Woot \o/

    Awesome news (I bought HL2 in Nov 2004 to play CS:S).

    I hope this has Steamworks on PS3 along with mouse/keyboard, custom map support and dedicated servers. I would love to game with and against my Steam friends who still play CS:S daily in this new title. Maybe my clan will reform.

    One thing the devs must not do is to CODify this title. CS doesn't need perks, aim assist or aim down sights.

  • Moonprince #25 10 months ago

    Not quite xardan, the ps3 version will likely have keyboard mouse support

  • Haloboy #26 10 months ago

    http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/71...

  • Mister-Wario #27 10 months ago

    Moonprince: it really ought to. I mean, if we can get a mouse for a PS1 we should be able to get one for PS3.

  • metallicorphan #28 10 months ago

    I loved Counter-Strike on xbox 1 this is great news

  • Scopeh #29 10 months ago

    i hope they add Cross platform PC to PS3. that would be amazing just like they did with portal...of course it would be optional for all the QQers.

  • Monkey_Puncher #30 10 months ago

    Long as it plays as well on 360 as it did on Xbox, I'm very much onboard!

  • gjgjg #31 10 months ago

    Wonder how the long standing pc community feel about the expansion. I for one will be picking it up, last time I played it was 99 and was always intimidated to go back ;p
    Will it be cross platform mp like portal 2?

  • chrisola #32 10 months ago

    i've been waiting for this!

  • overcorpse #33 10 months ago

    "^That would be hilarious if true, imagine those poor PS3 players having to play against PC users. They would get annihilated. Looks like your trolling backfired."

    Why has it?Anybody with half a clue plays FPS on PS3 wth a mouse but has better movement control than WASD.^^

    /Kisses Frag FX
    Edited by overcorpse at 13/08/11 @ 00:31

  • Lemming81 #34 10 months ago

    VALVE NOTE:

    Please allow cross-platform play for PC/PS3 with forced mouse/keyboard input only for PS3 users.

    Joypad users only get console-only players.

    I trust we have an accord...


    EDIT: Negged for ADDING a decent compromising option? Wow.
    Edited by Lemming81 at 13/08/11 @ 02:15

  • bratmandu #35 10 months ago

    Is it like Desert Strike?

  • mushroomyakuza #36 10 months ago

    CS will always beat COD...but if it isn't free :-/...

  • JesseDeya #37 10 months ago

    Add another vote for cross platform PC/PS3/MAC play. KB/M for PS3 would be awesome too.

    Do it Gabe, you know you want to.

  • Subdominator #38 10 months ago

    Great move, a divided community is gonna be even more divided after this. Now there are always about 50k players for CS 1.6 and 50k for CS Source. After GO there's probably gonna be 40 k CS 1.6, 30k CS Source and 40 k CS GO. *sigh* Still more than enough but why not create a real CS 1.7 with modern graphics and everything else straight from 1.6?

  • DUFFKING #39 10 months ago

    Cross Platform Counter Strike would probably be amusing for 10 minutes before all the console users decide it would probably be best to just play with other console users. Normally the Keyboard/Mouse and Joypad difference doesn't bother me, but it makes a hell of a difference in CS.
    Edited by DUFFKING at 13/08/11 @ 10:50

  • chessboxer #40 10 months ago

    @Subdominator

    Someone already tried that, it's called CSPromod. It was supposed to have the graphics, textures and physics of CS:S with the gameplay/movement of CS1.6. I remember when the beta went live (it didn't work for months) and the mod team seemingly left it after 2 patches. Looking at the site now it seems like they have been making progress but none of my Steam friends play it.

  • danidrums #41 10 months ago

    Wheres Half-Life 2 Episode 3?

    @ Rosswell Thanks for the copy/paste made easy.

  • filipo #42 10 months ago

    As long as there's more of the below, DAY ONE.

    "Get out of there, it's gonna blow! Get out of there, it's gonna blow! Get out of there, it's gonna blow! Get out of there, it's gonna blow! G - G - G- G- Ge - Ge - G - Get out - Get out of there, it's gonna blow! Get out of there, it's gonna blow! "

  • FooAtari #43 10 months ago

    Very interested in this. But amazes me how people can get so excited by a reveal which only reveals the logo.

  • IncredibleKoosh #44 10 months ago

    @Foo Because CS is pretty much a known quantity. And Valve rarely put a foot wrong quality wise.

    As long as the net code is fine this is day one for me (X360)

  • syra #45 10 months ago

    COD kiddies probably wont like the play as it's more tactical and slower than the new run and gun CODs. CoD1's multiplayer was clearly inspired by CS, and after the best part of a decade i still have the itch to pick up CSS when I want to play a shooter, so sick of COD.

  • Collymilad #46 10 months ago

    SWEET.

    To be honest I'm baffled it's taken them this long to bring CS to XBLA in some form. It's a no brainer.

    @PC elitist idiots: Why don't you just play the PC version and stfu? How exactly are they going to "dumb down" CS? Always got to get your little digs in it's pathetic and smacks of some kind of insecurity. About what though I really do not know.
    Edited by Collymilad at 13/08/11 @ 17:16

  • StooMonster #47 10 months ago

    Collymilad: How exactly are they going to "dumb down" CS?

    Larger hit boxes? Auto-aim? The staples of joypad based FPS.

    It's using a joypad as the controller that is to blame for PC condescension. Why did Microsoft initially promote and then swiftly pull cross-platform play on "Live" between PC and Xbox ... because even the very best joypad players were beaten by mediocre or even poor keyboard & mouse ones. Some might say that K&M gives unfair advantage, whereas others might say joypads give unfair disadvantage.

    That's not to say that joypads don't have their place, I prefer several PC games with joypad (e.g. Fallout 3), and many console games work incredibly well with them, even some console based FPS, but on cross-platform FPS they are suboptimal.

  • Lunatic4ever #48 10 months ago

    is it really an xbla title? too bad. hoped it would turn out to be a full retail

  • jack_klugman #49 9 months ago

    Hard to justify full retail for something which will likely be online-only.

  • Xardan #50 9 months ago

    Yes its being released on XBLA. I dont know why people negged Lunatic4ever or even me for that matter.

    I dont think people realise its not full retail yet, its a digital release and i think certain users were hoping for cross platform play and all that.

  • Nephirion #51 9 months ago

    Valve support for TF2 on 360 was appalingly bad, once bitten ,,,

  • Architect_z #52 9 months ago

    "Get out of there, its gonna blow!"

    "Negative"

  • joshuaserial #53 9 months ago

    I am new to pc gaming and i always die loads on CS but it doesn't mean im just going to give up and play cs on consoles such as ps3 or xbox360. CS is best for the pc.