Today marks a significant milestone for one of the most iconic and influential first-person shooter franchises of all time—Counter-Strike is celebrating its 25th anniversary. What began as a humble Half-Life mod in 1999 has evolved into a global phenomenon, captivating millions with its intense, team-based tactical gameplay. The original Counter-Strike was instantly hit upon its public beta release on June 19, 1999, quickly building a fervent cult following among PC gamers. Valve soon recognized its potential, acquiring the rights and releasing an official standalone version in November 2000. This launched Counter-Strike into the mainstream, kicking off over two decades of continuous development, innovation, and fierce competitive play. Over the years, the series has seen multiple major releases like Condition Zero, Source, and the juggernaut Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in 2012. Each introduced new maps, weapons, graphics enhancements, and gameplay twists like CS: GO's Danger Zone battle royale mode.

But the core hook remained—tightly coordinated attack/defense scenarios demanding skill, strategy, and pinpoint shooting accuracy. Many of us grew up playing Counter Strike. The latest evolution arrived last September with Counter-Strike 2, ushering in a new engine, revamped graphics, and additional gameplay refinements. While initially met with some skepticism from hardcore fans, CS2 has been widely embraced, smashing records with over 1.5 million peak concurrent players. The key to Counter-Strike's enduring success has been its best-in-class core gameplay loop combined with Valve's commitment to evolve with the times. But just as crucial is the passionate global community that has embraced the series' high-skill cap and opportunities for creative strategies. Many have remained devoted for decades, fueling a robust professional esports scene. As it enters its 26th year, Counter-Strike's tactical multiplayer mayhem shows no signs of slowing down. Its unique blend of shooting fundamentals and cerebral team play has firmly cemented its place as one of the most influential games ever made.

CHERRY, a world-renowned brand in gaming in general and in the field of mechanical keyboard switches in particular, today announced one of their most extensive product launches to date, including high-performance gaming keyboards, mice, microphones and more, at CES 2024. CHERRY initially introduced its global effort within gaming peripherals with the acquisition of the Swedish gaming gear specialist XTRFY and the launch of CHERRY XTRFY in 2023.

"We've spent 2023 working diligently to build CHERRY XTRFY and create a new generation of gaming gear under a common banner. As we enter 2024, we're extremely proud to introduce more than 10 new gaming products that will be released over the upcoming months. With innovative products that are at the forefront of performance, and expansions into new product segments, CHERRY XTRFY is building a complete range for professional and casual gamers alike," says Joakim Jansson, Head of Product & Portfolio at CHERRY and Managing Director for CHERRY XTRFY.

Rush to the cloud - stream Counter Strike 2 on GeForce NOW for the highest frame rates. Members can play through the newest chapter of Valve's elite, competitive, first-person shooter from the cloud. It's all part of an action-packed GFN Thursday, with 22 more games joining the cloud gaming platform's library, including Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 - Turbocharged.

Counter Strike 2 is the long-awaited upgrade to one of the most recognizable competitive first-person shooters in the world. Building on the legacy of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the latest iteration brings the action to Valve's long-anticipated Source 2 video game engine, promising enhanced graphical fidelity with a physically based rendering system for more realistic textures and materials, dynamic lighting, reflections and more. Smoke grenades are now dynamic volumetric objects that can interact with their surroundings by reacting to lighting and other environmental effects. And smoke particles work with the unified lighting system, allowing for more realistic light and color. Even better: GeForce NOW Ultimate members can take full advantage of NVIDIA Reflex for ultra-low-latency gameplay streaming from the cloud. Rush the objective with the squad on Counter Strike 2's remastered maps at up to 240 frames per second - a first for cloud gaming. Upgrade today for the Ultimate Counter-Strike experience.

NVIDIA Reflex is a must-have in games, reducing system latency so your actions occur quicker, giving you a competitive edge in multiplayer matches, and making single-player titles more responsive and enjoyable. NVIDIA Reflex is now used by over 50 million players each month, is available in 9 of the top 10 competitive shooters, including Counter-Strike 2, and is activated by 90% of GeForce gamers in over 80 supported titles. NVIDIA Reflex is synonymous with responsive gaming, and can be found in the latest and greatest games. Counter-Strike 2 and Overwatch 2 Season 7: Rise of Darkness are reducing system latency with Reflex today, and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 adds support in the coming days.

Overwatch 2 Season 7 Available Now
NVIDIA Reflex enables GeForce gamers to play with minimal system latency in Overwatch 2's highly competitive multiplayer matches. Overwatch 2 Season 7: Rise of Darkness is now live. Defeat powerful bosses and level up your hero in the new Trials of Sanctuary game mode. Travel to a tropical paradise with the new Samoa map. Try out Sombra's new ability kit and look out for Roadhog's rework later in the season. Explore seasonal cosmetics in the shop or earn them with the Battle Pass. Using NVIDIA Reflex on a GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU, your actions have improved responsiveness, occurring virtually without delay, and performance is so high that you'll see the action at its best with maximum clarity.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's popularity has continued to increase since its release way back in 2012, and today, it remains the most played game on Steam each week, boasting over one million concurrent players. Now, Valve has launched Counter-Strike 2, a graphical and technological update that upgrades Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to the Source 2 engine, leveraging newer graphics APIs for improved fidelity and responsiveness. NVIDIA has worked with Valve to make sure system latency, which is critical to winning, is at an absolute minimum with the addition of NVIDIA Reflex.

In competitive shooters such as Counter-Strike 2, higher FPS and lower system latency allows you to acquire targets faster, react more quickly, and increase aim precision. On a GeForce RTX 40 Series PC or laptop, your skill won't be constrained by system latency, or frame rates. Get the ultimate Counter-Strike 2 competitive experience, powered by GeForce RTX 40 Series for unbeatable performance, and NVIDIA Reflex for the lowest latency. Gamers with a compatible graphics card can enable NVIDIA Reflex in Counter-Strike 2 to reduce system latency by up to 35%.

Valve's Counter-Strike 2 is now officially available, replacing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Describing it as "the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come." Announced back in March, Counter-Strike 2 brings plenty of new features, updated maps, and more.

In a blog post announcing the availability, Valve says that returning players will find their favorite maps and matchmaking modes, as well as a revamped Premier mode for the new CS Rating. The biggest update is the sub-tick architecture, promising that the server will now know "the exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a 'nade is thrown." Valve also released the new patch, launching the game and bringing some fixes and new features and modes that were previously unavailable.

Intel's Alchemist engineering team has been working on improving its open-source Vulkan drivers for Linux—recent coverage from Phoronix shows that Team Blue's hard work is paying off, especially in the area of gaming performance. The site's founder, Michael Larabel, approves of the latest Mesa work produced by Intel engineers, and has commended them on their efforts to better the Arc Graphics family. His mid-month testings—on a Linux 6.4-based system running an Intel Arc A770 GPU—demonstrated a "~10% speed-up for the Intel Arc Graphics on Linux." He has benchmarked this system again over the past weekend, following the release of a new set of optimizations for Mesa 23.3-devel: "The latest performance boost for Intel graphics on Linux is by supporting the I915_FORMAT_MOD_4_TILED_DG2_RC_CCS modifier. Indeed it's panning out nicely for furthering the Intel Arc Graphics Vulkan performance."

He apologized for the limited selection of games, due to: "the Intel Linux graphics driver still not having sparse support in place, but at least that will hopefully be here in the coming months when the Intel Xe kernel driver is upstreamed. Another recent promising development for the Intel open-source graphics driver support is fake sparse support to at least help some games and that code will hopefully be merged soon." First up was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive—thanks to the optimized Vulkan drivers it: "enjoyed another nice boost to the performance as a result of this latest code. For CS Linux gamers, it's great seeing the 21% boost just over the past month."

March was an exciting month for GeForce gamers with the announcement of Reflex, DLSS and more for Diablo IV and other hotly anticipated titles, and the launch of the world's first 500 Hz competitive gaming monitor. Let's dive in for a quick look at this month's NVIDIA Reflex news.

Counter-Strike 2 Features NVIDIA Reflex
Valve has announced Counter-Strike 2, a graphical and technological update that upgrades Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to the Source 2 engine. The latest edition leverages newer graphics APIs for improved fidelity and responsiveness. NVIDIA is collaborating with Valve to ensure latency is at an absolute minimum with the addition of NVIDIA Reflex.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure Available Now With NVIDIA DLSS 3 & NVIDIA Reflex
When Sackboy: A Big Adventure launched last October, it included support for DLSS 2, and featured ray-traced reflections, ray-traced shadows and ray-traced ambient occlusion effects. This adventure is a true test of mettle for any system when enjoyed in 4K with all options maxed out.

THE NEXT ERA OF COUNTER-STRIKE BEGINS THIS SUMMER

Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come. All of the game's new features will be revealed when it officially launches this summer, but the road to Counter-Strike 2 begins today as a Limited Test for select CS:GO players. During this testing period, we'll be evaluating a subset of features to shake out any issues before the worldwide release.

Counter-Strike 2 arrives this summer as a free upgrade to CS:GO. So build your loadout, hone your skills, and prepare yourself for what's next! Read on to learn more about some of the features of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test.

Just three weeks after having an all-time high number of 28 million concurrent players, Steam has managed to break another record and provide its services to 29.2 million gamers across the globe. According to the data from SteamDB, there were 29,201,174 concurrent gamers were utilizing Valve's Steam platform and playing their favorite game without realizing that they were breaking a world record. And of course, the highest contributor to this record are online multiplayer games such as Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which achieved 900K and 787K active players in the last 24 hours. This shows an excellent trend for Valve's Steam platform, and we are just a shy away from seeing 30 million concurrent gamers playing "side by side."

Steam has recently published their Best of 2020 awards which highlight the best selling, and most played games of 2020. The awards include six categories including Top Sellers, Top New Releases, Top Selling VR Games, Top Early Access Graduates, Most Played Games, and Top Controller Games. The 100 games in each list are ranked as Platinum (1st - 12th), Gold (13th - 24th), Silver (25th - 40th), and Bronze (41st - 100th) with each rank of games being randomly sorted.

Starting with the Top Sellers we have Grand Theft Auto V, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, DOOM Eternal, Monster Hunter: World, Dota 2, Among Us, Destiny 2, PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive all taking the top platinum rating.

Steam has recently recorded a new peak concurrent player record of 24,804,148 users, this record comes after the previous record was broken in March as lockdowns and stay at home orders were issued. The release of Cyberpunk 2077 is a driving factor of the cause of this new record as the game recorded over 1 million concurrent users. The game had sold over 8 million pre-orders across all platforms leading up to its release with Steam sales accounting for over 50 million USD. This stellar release combined with the growing popularity of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive also surpassing 1 million concurrent players helped break the previous record.

Counter-Strike is one of the favorite game franchises for all gamers. It is an FPS shooter that probably got many of us into gaming. Version 1.6 which launched in 2000 is still played by many players around the world to this day. Including my self sometimes. It is just quick fun for when you have some spare time to kill and want to do a few multiplayer rounds. Its simplicity and fun were what made the game very popular among many gamers. So wouldn't it be fun to play it without installing if you want quick action? Now it is possible to play it in your web-browser requiring no installation of the game. There is a website which you can visit here and try it out for yourself. Surprisingly it runs very smooth and I didn't experience any issues myself. Please tell us your experience in the comments if you decide to try and run this.

SteelSeries, the leader in PC gaming peripherals, today announces the new Neon Rider collection inspired by Red Moon Workshop's beloved CS:GO skin. This exclusive collaboration combines the popular Neon Rider skin and SteelSeries' award-winning peripherals to create an exciting collection specifically made for CS:GO enthusiasts around the world. The collection includes a Neon Rider designed Sensei Ten, and Qck L and QcK Prism XL mousepads.

Our relationship with Counter-Strike is as old as we are. From creating the first products for competitive players, to being the first professional sponsors for teams and events, to creating products just for fans of the game, we are proud to continue to be a part of the world of Counter-Strike with this exclusive collaboration. With the high performing sensor and comfort of the Sensei Ten and massive size of the QcK, we picked these products to be the perfect additions to any CS:GO player's setup.

Source Code of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 got leaked today. It seems like Valve hasn't been careful with control of its output, and a few leaks came out. All of the licensees of the Source Engine, a multi-platform game engine used in all Valve's games like Dota 2, Half-Life, and CS: GO, have been empowered by Valve with access to the source code of 2017/2018 versions of CS: GO and Team Fortress 2. Someone down the line, however, took that opportunity and access to leak the source code. The original news source is the SteamDB Twitter account, so we don't have any link to the actual source code.

This pretty big news since CS: GO can be considered as the most popular game on the Steam platform, and IP that Valve holds on it is very valuable. The 2017/2018 version that is leaked is probably outdated by a mile now, but it still represents an act of theft and should be treated as such. We are yet to see the response from Valve and how they will handle this situation.

Steam, an online platform for gaming, has seen some incredible numbers in terms of usage last night. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that many people are in quarantine/self-isolation mode, the number of concurrent users of the platform has skyrocketed. Beating all the previous records of 18 million and 20 million concurrent users, Steam saw as much as 23 million concurrent users last night. Precisely 23,572,311 of users online, setting a new record-high number. The most played games were Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. For more statistics, please see here.

Leading gaming headset and audio accessory brand Turtle Beach (NASDAQ: HEAR) officially enters the PC gaming headset market with today's announcement that the company's all-new Atlas line of headsets built for PC is now available at participating retailers worldwide. Designed in collaboration with leading esports teams, including Astralis, OpTic Gaming, and the Houston Outlaws, Turtle Beach's Atlas line features three different models, including the Elite Atlas Pro Performance PC Gaming Headset, the powerful Atlas Three Amplified PC Gaming Headset, and the versatile Atlas One PC Gaming Headset. Each Atlas headset offers PC gamers an innovative set of features, functionality and pricing, starting with the Elite Atlas with a MSRP of £89.99, and the Atlas Three and Atlas One with MSRPs of £69.99 and £39.99, respectively. Read below for full details of each Atlas PC gaming headset.

"We worked with some of the best pro gamers in the world to make sure our new Atlas line delivers PC gamers the superior audio performance and comfort Turtle Beach is known for," said Juergen Stark, CEO, Turtle Beach. "Turtle Beach's success is rooted in our ability to innovate and offer a broad portfolio of products designed for all types of gamers, from professional competitive esports athletes to those just getting into gaming, and that's what we're now bringing to the PC market with our Atlas headsets. We knew we needed more than just a single offering, so we built the Atlas lineup to cater to the various types of PC gamers out there - whether they're shopping based on specific features or budget."

MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, has partnered with ESL for its MSI Gaming Arena (MGA) 2018 World Championship and as the exclusive gaming sponsor of the ESL One 2018 Grand Finals at the Barclays Center in New York on September 29 and 30.MGA 2018 World Championship
Before the Grand Final, MSI Gaming Arena (MGA) 2018 will host the world's top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams fighting for the coveted MGA Trophy and $60,000 prize pool on September 30 at the Barclays Center in New York. After the regional qualifiers, the four remaining teams will secure their spot in the MGA 2018 CS:GO Grand Finals.

SteelSeries, the global leader in gaming peripherals, in collaboration with Valve, is proud to announce a limited-edition line of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) branded peripherals. The new mouse and mousepad feature a design based on CS:GO's most legendary gun skin, the M4A4 Howl.

"Valve has been a valued partner for a long time, first with the creation of the Rival 300 Fade and Rival 300 Hyper Beast, and CS:GO integration in SteelSeries Engine," said Ehtisham Rabbani, SteelSeries CEO. "The Rival 310 and QcK+ Limited Howl Editions are the next chapter in our partnership to help CS:GO players be as accurate as possible while sporting an iconic look. We are avid supporters of the competitive scene and are proud to announce our new line at the FACEIT Major in London."

Today, SteelSeries announces its official partnership with popular eSports organization FaZe Clan. This partnership makes SteelSeries the exclusive peripheral partner of FaZe Clan and includes sponsorship of all eSports teams including Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Call of Duty, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege and FIFA.

FaZe Clan is home to some of the most successful eSports teams and players in the world. Their world class CS:GO team comes off the back of a Top 4 finish at the ESL Pro League Finals and an impressive 3-0 tournament win at the Intel Extreme Masters in Sydney.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition graphics drivers. Version 17.7.1 Beta adds support for new crypto-currency mining SKUs based on Radeon RX 460 and RX 470; and RX 550 and RX 560. It fixes a"Tekken 7" application crash seen on R9 380 graphics cards; and crashes noticed on "FFXIV" and "Little Nightmares" on Radeon 300-series SKUs. In addition, it addresses graphics corruption issues seen on "Rainbow Six Siege" when MSAA is enabled; borderless-fullscrreen incompatibility with FreeSync on some applications; and stuttering on some FreeSync setups running Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and World of Warcraft. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.7.1 BetaImage Credit: Beyond the Routine
The change-log follows.

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced over one dozen Steam Machine designs now in production from leading manufacturers and targeted for release in 2014. The lineup of Steam Machines announced today offers a wide variety of price and performance options made possible by the Steam Machine's open design, with systems starting as low as $499 and top end systems rivaling today's bleeding edge gaming PCs.

Every Steam Machine includes an innovative Steam Controller designed for use with a wide variety of game genres, and is powered by the SteamOS, a custom OS built atop Linux. "The first generation Steam Machines offers something for every gamer, which is a critical part of extending Steam into the living room," said Gabe Newell of Valve. "With over 3,000 games and more than 65 million gamers on Steam, it's important to offer gamers a variety of Steam Machines that allow them to select what makes the most sense for them."

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the second set of titles proceeding to worldwide distribution opportunities through Steam Greenlight. This second wave of titles was originally targeted to include at least 10 titles. Given the number and quality of games submitted, and the ship date of many of the top-ranking titles, the decision was made to increase the size of this group.

Steam Greenlight is a new platform feature that enlists the community's help in selecting some of the next games to be released on Steam. Launched on August 30, Greenlight allows developers and publishers to post information and media about their game in an effort to convince Community members that their game should be released on Steam.

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available for pre-purchase worldwide.

All players who pre-purchase on Steam receive a 10% discount and gain early access to the beta on August 14th. CS: GO expands on the classic team-based action gameplay that Counter-Strike pioneered.Featuring an arsenal of over 45 weapons, loads of maps, new game modes, new visuals, leaderboards and over 165 Steam Achievements.

Valve, creator of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the open beta release of Source Filmmaker (SFM), for free, to everyone.

The SFM is a storytelling tool Valve developed inside the Source Engine to create all its animated short films, including those in the "Meet the Team" series of Team Fortress 2 shorts. The SFM condenses the production pipeline of an animation studio down onto a single gaming PC. To help the community get started, the SFM includes all assets from Team Fortress 2 along with assets from two of the "Meet the Team" short films.