Will CSGO still be playable during Counter-Strike 2?

It may seem silly to keep playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive when Counter-Strike 2 drops this summer, but there are plenty of valid reasons to keep it around.

Counter-Strike 2 has the CSGO community popping off with every new detail, announcement, and bug. However, the limited beta test still isn’t playable for the majority of fans, leaving them stuck in CSGO. While everyone is clamoring to test the new maps and smoke mechanics, it’s important to think about the legacy of CSGO and what it will leave behind. Will CSGO still be playable after Counter-Strike 2 becomes the standard? We think so, and here’s how Valve could go about supporting it.

The biggest strike against CSGO remaining playable is the fact that both games are currently tied to the same Steam application. Counter-Strike 2 testers must use Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as a base to download the game. This implies that when the engine swap goes live, CSGO will literally be replaced with CS2.

This is further compounded by the fact that much of CSGO’s existing content is getting ported over to the Source 2 version. All skins from the game are confirmed to stay, and that likely means other user-owned content, like music kits and profile coins, will too. If that’s the case, it will be difficult to maintain databases for both sets of items in each game.  

Valve may keep CSGO playable after CS2 launch

However, there’s reason to suspect that Valve will keep CSGO playable even after CS2 launches this summer.

The first is precedence. All previous versions of Counter-Strike are still completely playable. 1.6 isn’t very active these days, but a dedicated group of users still regularly play. The same is true for Counter-Strike: Source, which is still listed on Steam, much to the benefit of Garry’s Mod players.

A possible outcome is that Valve will keep a legacy version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive available on Steam. There’s a ton of community-created content for the Source 1 version of the game, and it would be a shame for it all to disappear overnight. On an older client, users could still enjoy community servers and surfing. However, skins may be permanently removed from CSGO to prevent duping shenanigans.