Valve made CS2 available to a small portion of the player base on March 22. Eager Counter-Strike players around the world have been wondering when they’ll get their hands on the full release, and a chance to move on from CS:GO, ever since.
Valve has been relatively quiet since the start of the limited test besides announcing the first Counter-Strike 2 Major will take place in 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Most of the new information about features coming to the title has been found by community leakers alongside a handful of patches.
Counter-Strike 2 releasing in Summer 2023
Valve has revealed that CS2 will officially release in Summer 2023. We’re certain Valve is talking about summer in the U.S. since its headquarters is located in Seattle. In that case, the new installment in the franchise could release worldwide anywhere between now (Aug. 6, 2023) and Sept. 23.
Valve is doing what it does best: drip-feeding information to players while working behind the scenes to deliver the most polished experience possible when the game goes live. A leak from Aug. 7, however, suggests that CS2 will have to be released on or before Sept. 23 as this is when the Fall ranked season is set to begin.
Counter-Strike 2 test beta receiving regular updates
In classic Valve style, a huge update landed out of the blue on Tuesday, June 6, detailing the addition of interchangeable weapon loadouts, the ability to buyback at the start of rounds, and fan-favorite map Mirage to the limited test. The beta showed Mirage has a number of bugs and Valve is trying to fix them at a steady pace through a number of minor updates.
With the June 6 update dropping a variety of changes, as well as more Steam Workshop tools for users to create skins and custom maps, some have speculated the transition to CS2 may be coming ahead of schedule. A massive update from June 29 replaced Mirage with Nuke and Office, allowing players to play more than one map in the beta and boosting the rumors that a full release is nearly upon us.
Related: All differences between Counter-Strike 2 and CS:GO
June 17’s CS2 beta update saw Valve continue to build upon the base experience, with a complete rework of Overpass launching in multiple modes. Also added was Vertigo, as well as a full playable port of the Wingman game mode. Even though Valve is still rotating maps out of the beta, the addition of major skin and visual settings–as well as Wingman–continues to drive speculation that CS2’s worldwide launch is close.
On Aug. 2, another beta test update was released. This time, Overpass and Vertigo were removed and Wingman was disabled while Anubis was added to Deathmatch, Casual, and Competitive modes. Ancient was also added to Deathmatch and Casual.
Aug. 15’s update would normally have seen the new Italy replace Anubis and Ancient in Competitive. However, Valve instead chose to disable Competitive and private matchmaking, adding Italy to Deathmatch and Casual only. It’s not clear yet why Valve chose to make this change.
For a full list of all the Counter-Strike 2 beta test patches so far, and all of the changes that come with them, check out our CS2 hotfix hub.
