Battle Royale mode coming to Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is about to join the battle royale party.

Developer Valve has revealed that CS:GO will now feature a new battle royale game mode called Danger Zone. The news was announced on Twitter, alongside a lengthy post on the game’s official blog.

Like most battle royale game modes, Danger Zone sees a group of players drop into an area, in this case called the Blacksite, in a hunt for resources and armaments. Money can be earned in a number of different ways ranging from special missions to on-site procurements, which can then be used to buy new drone-delivered weapons and armor.

Danger Zone draws on existing weapons from CS:GO, though it also introduces new tools and healing items. Existing items such as C4 can be used in different ways than in the game’s standard modes, and new weapons like throwable melee weapons have been added. The most notable new addition is the “personal tablet,” an item that is used to survey the play area and track enemy movements.

Danger Zone can be played either solo or in teams of two or three in games featuring up to 18 players. According to the official blog post, games will last “about 10 minutes,” putting them at the shorter end of the battle royale spectrum.

In addition to the new game mode, a number of other new additions to CS:GO were also announced. These include a new case and a limited edition souvenir skin. Perhaps most notably, CS:GO is now being made a free-to-play title.

The new content officially launched just minutes after the announcement was made and can now be found on Steam. Veterans can now look forward to an influx of new players into the game.