Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is famous for starting the skin economy popular in many of today’s games, but one CSGO workshop contributor claims that his skin was changed after he submitted it for review and that this change highlights a big problem with AK-47 skins throughout the game.
A post on the game’s subreddit showed an image from the Steam Marketplace of the AK | Voltaic and compared it to how it looks in-game, and there are a few differences. The poster went on to say that he thinks Valve has misapplied skins across the board for CSGO’s famous rifle. The magazine seems to be where skins are changed the most. according to the user. In the case of the Voltaic, it seems as though the caution tape present on the magazine was moved from the bottom to its side.
Thankfully, there may not be as much to worry about as this user had figured. Steam Workshop contributors often tweak their designs between submitting them to Valve for review and to the community to vote on. Sometimes, those final changes don’t make it all the way through to the image file that was submitted with the skin, leading to some differences between the item’s file on the market and its representation in-game.
This has led to confusion in the past, with some weapon’s marketplace image files not matching up quite right with their in-game representations. But since the creators of CSGO’s skins hand their files off to Valve, it’s ultimately on the developer to update the marketplace photos as well as the in-game uploads. And as everyone who plays CSGO knows, sometimes Valve operates on its own schedule. When Valve does update the marketplace files, it’s usually in large batches, which would explain the lag between a skin being accepted, put into a case, and sold before its image is properly updated.
It’s rarely a big difference, so players shouldn’t be too worried. Thankfully, CSGO’s skin barons can inspect each skin in-game before they decide to purchase them. In this case, it’s likely the creator either decided to shake up his final submission, or Valve has made some edits as they are legally allowed to do per the Marketplace’s terms of service agreement.
There is a lesson here though: Always inspect before you buy.
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