Counter-Strike fans devastated as Valve shuts down CS fan project that took 8 years

by

To everyone’s astonishment, including mod developers and enthusiasts, Valve has prevented the launch of Classic Offensive – a Counter-Strike modification that began development eight years ago – on Steam.

I jumped into the world of Classic Offensive, a gaming creation designed to recapture that classic 1.6 vibe from Counter-Strike. It’s all about the original weaponry, game mechanics, and audio cues here, with modern skins and weapons taking a back seat.

During the course of its eight-year development period, this game attracted significant interest from many quarters. However, by December 2024, the developers informed eager gamers that they had already submitted the final version for approval in October, but were yet to receive any feedback or decision from Steam.

Unfortunately, the news wasn’t good as the team had been aiming for a Christmas Day, December 25, release. The recent update suggests that the project might not come to fruition and may not be seen in public anymore.

Classic Offensive mod suddenly rejected by Valve

For over a fortnight, the Classic Offensive Twitter/X account remained quiet before posting an update on January 11, 2025. The announcement stated that the team had at last received a reply regarding their Counter-Strike mod, but regrettably, Steam did not grant approval for a complete release.

The message we got from Steam Support was automated, stating that our app has been discontinued with no reason given. This news is heartbreaking since we’ve dedicated nearly 8 years to this project.

In 2017, the development team submitted Classic Offensive to Steam Greenlight for approval. During this process, they consulted with Valve’s legal team and other developers, which influenced the direction of the game’s production.

Despite the fact that the necessary modifications were approved and implemented, all regulations were adhered to, and no unauthorized CS:GO game code was utilized, the team encountered an obstacle. To put it simply, the supporters are not satisfied with this situation.

“So Valve is now the bad corpo, huh?” someone replied.

A different user commented, “It’s unfortunate that a business, which originally thrived due to its modding policy and the concept of mods themselves, is now taking actions like this.

It’s not surprising that some people think Valve might prefer to avoid any distractions for Counter-Strike 2, as suggested by a tweet that goes something like this: ‘In essence, they seem concerned that if CS:CO (Counter-Strike: Competitive Operations) gains traction, it may overshadow their still developing CS2 game.’

The news traveled much farther than anticipated, and I found myself expressing it rather anxiously after receiving messages that @SteamDB had picked up on its delisting. Subsequently, Steamworks responded at an unusual hour of 1 am.

It was never my intention to portray Valve in a negative light.

I’ll provide more context: The unexpected turn of events unfolded when it was disclosed that the game had been removed from Steam, causing concern among the community, which led to its pickup by @SteamDB. This prompted a response from Steamworks at an unconventional hour.

— ZooL (@ZooL_Smith) January 12, 2025

Following the enthusiastic reactions from fans, the creator of the Classic Offensive mod, ZooL_Smith, penned down an extensive post outlining several key achievements reached by the development team.

As a devoted enthusiast, I discovered that even a glimmer of optimism is interwoven into this situation. Interestingly enough, the developer mentioned that similar rejection messages have been encountered by other modders in the past. It seems there might have been an error on Steamworks’ end, and they may rectify it.

As of writing, then, it’s unclear what the future holds for the long-awaited Classic Offensive.

Read More

2025-01-13 16:21