Counter-Strike 2 Officially Announced—Free Upgrade To CS:GO

Counter-Strike 2, the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history with new features and updates planned for years to come, will launch in Summer 2023 and is available in Limited Testing for some CS:GO players starting today.

After years of success in the online multiplayer shooter space, CS:GO is officially getting a sequel, with Counter-Strike 2 on the way this Summer as an all-new release and a free upgrade for those current CS:GO players, marking the start of a new era on Valve’s Source 2 engine.

The game’s full range of new features will be announced at launch, but during the limited testing period, evaluations for a subset of those features will be conducted to prepare it for the worldwide release.

Here are some of the major plans for Counter-Strike 2:

Upgraded and overhauled maps
Game-changing dynamic smoke grenades
Tick-rate-independent gameplay
Redesigned visual effects and audio
All of a player’s CS:GO items go with them to Counter-Strike 2

All of the game’s new features will be revealed when it officially launches this summer, but the road to Counter-Strike 2 begins today as a Limited Test for select CS:GO players. Players are selected based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team, including (but not limited to) recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing. Full details can be found on the Steam FAQ page.

Counter-Strike 2 looks to be everything that players have been hoping for during the long lifespan of the original CS:GO, with tons of features coming to improve on the game, as well as long-asked-for changes coming with the release of this sequel. Make sure to go check out the website to see the pages and pages up plans, videos, and features coming to Counter-Strike 2, and for long-time players of the game—get hype!