After a flurry of rumors hit the internet this morning about a new Counter-Strike game in the works, Valve announced this morning that the game does exist, and it’s coming to all sorts of platforms in early 2012.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is targeted to release early next year for PC, Mac, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network. The game will deliver all new maps, characters, weapons, game modes, matchmaking and leaderboards, and will even included updated versions of old Counter-Strike classics, such as the legendary map “Dust.”
There will also be a new weapon called the Decoy grenade, which will let off a burst of gunfire. You can use this to lure opponents into thinking that’s where the action is so you can ambush them. Things are still being tweaked (the gunfire might be from specific weapons or just the generic enemy firearms for example) and the team has even played around with giving kevlar to everyone at the start of the round as opposed to having to buy it as well as other aspects of the gameplay so the game is very much still in development.
A press release from Doug Lombardi, VP of Marketing at Valve, had this to say:
“Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999. For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS‘ award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac.”
CS: GO is being developed by Valve in cooperation with Seattle-based Hidden Path Entertainment. The title will be playable at this year’s PAX Prime and Eurogamer Expo 2011.
Meanwhile, still no new word on Half-Life 3. Jerks.