🕹️ What you need to know about Counter Strike 2
🕹️ What you need to know about Counter Strike 2
PLUS: What happened to MultiVersus and Is E3 gone for good?
Welcome everybody.
Don’t worry; we’re reformatting our Market Wire segment, which should resume next week with some surprises. So stay tuned!
Hey, look, everybody, I tore my Achilles tendon (70% tear and tendon torn off the bone) and I accidentally ruined my first week’s recovery, although I finally did get a cast after a week:
Who else is having a great week? Lol.
My top news for the past week in the world of F2P games:
Counter Strike 2 Looks Like It’s Gonna Kill 🔫
What Happened to MultiVersus? 🆚
E3 is Canceled. Is It Gone for Good? 💀
Also, I had the honor of interviewing the studio many game people in India have called “the most exciting” game studio here: HyperNova. Check out this interview with CEO Mayur Bhimjiyani:
Counter Strike 2 is coming; what you need to know! 😱
After over 20 years of CS:GO, Counter Strike 2 is about to launch.
Quick overview:
Limited beta opened on March 22 to very active/competitive CS:GO players
Wide release sometime this summer
Developed in Valve’s Source 2 engine
Released as an update to CS:GO
All inventories/skins will be available in CS2
Lots of game improvements (see below)
PGL has already announced the first CS2 major tournament from March 17-31 2024 with a prize pool of $1.25M
Oh, and one other exciting potential for CS2:
Here are some of the new gameplay updates in CS2:
Reactive Grenades
Sub 128 tick rate
New levels
Better graphics
Better community modding tools
Hi-def VFX
Sub 128 tick rate means that, the frequency of updates can happen even in between 128 Hz. CS:GO currently operates at a tick rate of 64 Hz. Valorant runs at 128 Hz.
Graphical fidelity is much better and generally a lot brighter, as you can see below:
Check out some of the differences in the game below:
References:
Valve announces Counter-Strike 2, a free replacement for CS:GO (The Verge)
Will Counter-Strike 2 Be on Consoles? – Answered (Prima Games)
Counter-Strike 2 news center: Latest information and community reactions (esports.gg)
Counter-Strike 2 Reveal, Release Window, and Leaks - What To Know (Inverse)
Counter-Strike 2 Is Getting Its First Major in 2024 (AFK Gaming)
Counter-Strike 2: Release date and all you may want to know (The Economic Times)
5 game-changing updates in Counter-Strike 2 that will blow your mind (Hindustani Times)
Counter-Strike 2 Tick Rate Changes Explained (Prima Games)
MultVersus Closes Open Beta, Plans 2024 Launch
Developer Player First announced that the MultiVersus’ open beta would end on June 25, 2023, and may not open until early 2024… maybe.
MultiVersus started with a bang and hit over 150K peak players in its first month.
Unfortunately, there was a steep dropoff from there:
Clearly, the developers, Player First, did not anticipate having to shut down. Back in June of last year:
Even worse, because no refunds were issued, many players complained about a game where they spent money (to be fair, the game was in open beta) but would now be shut down for a year or more.
Was this the right call? Given how many major problems, including netcode, the game was experiencing, likely yes.
Is this a killer? One example of this situation working out is The Simpsons mobile game. The game launched, the servers melted, EA shut down the game for over six months, then returned the game to market, and the game ended up doing okay.
Let’s wish the best for Player First, but they have a pretty major challenge ahead.
References:
MultiVersus closes Open Beta on June 25 ahead of 2024 launch (GamesBeat)
MultiVersus to shut down until 2024, with no refunds for paying players (Eurogamer)
MultiVersus to shut down this June: Can you refund in-game purchases? (Spieltimes)
MultiVersus Beta Shutting Down In June, Full Launch Planned For Early 2024 (GameSpot)
MultiVersus is shutting down for at least six months with zero refunds (GamesRadar)
MultiVersus Player Count Has Dropped by Nearly 100% (GameRant)
‘MultiVersus’ is shutting down until 2024, sparking backlash from fans (NME)
E3 Cancellation Calls into Question the Future of Game Conferences and Media 🤔
Oh damn! I loved E3.
Many fond memories, but it’s not looking good for this conference.
E3 was founded in 1995
Last in-person E3 was in 2019
Event was canceled in 2020 due to COVID
Digital E3 was held in 2021
Canceled again in 2022
According to the ESA:
This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.
The bigger question now, though, is whether an E3 makes sense at all. Since COVID, video game publishers have now been doing their own live-streamed shows to announce game news.
They don’t need to spend big $$$
They don’t need to align their big announcements to E3’s calendar
They have full control of the process and the ability to create more direct connections with their players in a digital world
Expanding this line of thinking even further, do we need GDC?
What about game content publishing sites? In today’s world, Twitter and specific content producers (e.g., All In Podcast, Breaking Points, GameDiscoverCo, and millions of substack writers) are increasingly making mainstream media sites less relevant. Will that impact game publishing sites as well?
We live in exciting times, everybody! Change creates opportunity.
References:
E3 Wasn't Canceled, It Was Killed (Kotaku)
E3 2023: video game industry’s biggest expo cancelled (The Guardian)
E3 Has Been Canceled (IGN)
Oh dang, Bobby Kotick calls out Sony!
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sent an email to the whole company in which he called out Sony:
You may have seen statements from Sony, including an argument that if this deal goes through, Microsoft could release deliberately “buggy” versions of our games on PlayStation. We all know our passionate players would be the first to hold Microsoft accountable for keeping its promises of content and quality parity. And, all of us who work so hard to deliver the best games in our industry care too deeply about our players to ever launch sub-par versions of our games. Sony has even admitted that they aren’t actually concerned about a Call of Duty agreement—they would just like to prevent our merger from happening. This is obviously disappointing behavior from a partner for almost thirty years, but we will not allow Sony’s behavior to affect our long term relationship. PlayStation players know we will continue to deliver the best games possible on Sony platforms as we have since the launch of PlayStation.
References:
A March Update on the Microsoft Deal (Activision Blizzard Substack)
Speaking of Activision Blizzard, Diablo 4 looks like it’s off to a good start!
Here are the results from last week’s polls!
Wow, was I too bullish on Fortnite Creative 2.0? Lol. I’m super bullish but 82% believe in a capability that has yet to be fully operational?
My prediction: All of the current hype will give way to negativity when creators find out just how “beta” the current UEFN capabilities are. Remember folks, there isn’t even the ability to save progression yet! Rumors abound that even Epic folks feel UEFN may have released a bit too early. HOWEVER, after the valley of despair, I predict UEFN will make a comeback and rival Roblox.
Also, remember:
Well, folks, even 30-50% is quite a lot!
I’m a bit surprised that there are as many Epic fanboys like me who think Epic’s got a good shot here.