- 8 years since CS:GO released and still nobody knows why Valve abandoned the console version of the game.
- CS:GO was developed while trying to port CS:Source over to video game consoles.
- Valve initially had ambitious plans related to both PC and console versions of the game.
Console gaming has significantly grown over the years with many competitive shooters actively porting their game over to the platform in order to reach more players. What if Valve did the same with CS:GO how amazing would that be?
Well, Valve has actually already tried this as they initially launched CS:GO worldwide for both PC and Console (PS3 and Xbox 360) at the same time in August 2012 with Europe being an exception when it came to the console version. The developers had ambitious plans for both the versions but somehow the console version has disappeared as the game continues to thrive as a PC only title today. Valve had not given any reason or explanation from their side for taking this decision and eight years later it still remains a mystery although with a few speculations!
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CS:GO On Console: PS3 And Xbox 360
Believe it or not the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series CS:GO was made as a result of the developers actually trying to port its predecessor Counter-Strike: Source over to video game consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360. During this process, Valve saw an opportunity to turn this port into a completely new version which would be released on both PC and consoles.
They had big ambitions related to both the versions like cross-platform multiplayer similar to what Fortnite does now, but before this plan could even be implemented they were scrapped off followed by the expansion of the game on consoles being abandoned by the developers as well.
Today the game is thriving as a PC only title with a peak concurrent player count of more than a million at times. How ironic that a game which was born out of a decision to port CS:Source over to console became the very thing that doomed this version of the title.
Why Did Valve Abandon The Console Version?
The console versions of the game cannot be found today, well at least not on the official store. Even if a user is able to get their hands on the game it is basically an unstable version of the current CS:GO with a lot of bugs, glitches, and the old unrefined versions of the map. It does not have any dedicated server support or any of the updates that the PC version has received over the course of the last eight years.
According to Counter-Strike Wiki, the console version of CS:GO has not received even a single update till date with Valve apparently abandoning this project by summer of 2013 according to a Dust II map clue which dates back to around that time. Why Valve chose to abandon their console version remains to be a mystery till date as they have not given any reasoning for it while the community also seems to have clammed up and forgotten about it.
- A few speculations suggested that it was extremely difficult to update the console versions of the game which is evident from the fact that Valve never released a lot of updates for the console variants of both Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2, with the latter not receiving even a single patch update for its PS3 version.
- Another alleged speculation is that Valve had to pay a certain fee to Sony and Microsoft every time they rolled out an update for the device. This is based on the observation that many other free-to-play games on PC by Valve were paid on the console for quite the amount.
While the above reasons are not backed by any solid proofs they may have contributed to Valve abandoning the project even after investing a lot of money in it initially. The rising popularity of CS:GO on PC could have also been a factor which would have made the developers realize that console was not the right place for them at the time.
The CS:GO on PS3 and Xbox 360 is just terrible at the moment and the game has not at all been optimized for a console experience, it is more or less similar to the PC version and playing that with a controller is nothing less than a nightmare.
Till date, Valve has not given sound reasoning from their side for their decision and maybe it never will, even the community at this point has forgotten about those versions of the game as they have plenty of other things to ask Valve about like 120 tick dedicated servers, better anti-cheat, and most importantly 'Operation 10' which was supposed to release this month according to rumours.
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