Counter-Strike fans devastated as Valve shuts down CS fan project that took 8 years

To the surprise of modders and fans, Valve has blocked the Steam release of Classic Offensive, the Counter-Strike mod that entered production eight years ago.

The creators of Classic Offensive set out to create an experience that would bring back “the 1.6 feeling of Counter-Strike.” As such, the mod emphasized 1.6 weapons, gameplay, and sound effects while removing newer skins and weapons.

The mod garnered a lot of attention throughout its eight-year production cycle. Finally, the developers told hopeful players in December 2024 that they’d submitted a final version for approval in October but hadn’t received a response from Steam.

It was unfortunate news since the team had its sights set on a December 25 release date date. And the latest update may mean the mod will never see the light of day.

Classic Offensive mod suddenly rejected by Valve

Following weeks of silence, the Classic Offensive Twitter/X account shared a statement on January 11, 2025 announcing that the team had finally received a response. This Counter-Strike mod did not get Steam’s approval for a full release.

The statement reads in part, “…we’ve received an automated Steam Support message about having retired our app without any reason explained. This is devastating as we’ve worked on the project for almost 8 years.”

The developer message further notes that Classic Offensive “went through Steam Greenlight back in 2017.” Conversations with Valve’s legal team and some developers helped guide the course of production as well.

Valve, Classic Offensive

Some legal changes were requested and upheld, all guidelines were met, and no leaked CS:GO code was ever used. Yet, the crew still hit a roadblock. Suffice it to say, fans aren’t pleased.

“So Valve is now the bad corpo, huh?” someone replied.

Another user chimed in, “It’s sad that a company that grew out on their mods policy, and mods in general is doing something like this.”

Others posited Valve may not want anything to distract from Counter-Strike 2. “Yeah pretty much expected. They’re scared if csco pops off no one will play their half-baked CS2 game,” reads one such tweet.

The announcement reached far further than I expected, and I honestly worded it stressfully following people letting me know @SteamDB had catched it being delisted, then Steamworks had replied at 1am.

Putting Valve in a bad light wasn't the intent.

I'll give more details: https://t.co/wsZfhUQyuV

— ZooL (@ZooL_Smith) January 12, 2025

After seeing the fan response, the dev who started the Classic Offensive mod, ZooL_Smith, wrote a lenghty thread detailing many of the team’s production milestones.

It also features a ray of hope, with the developer explaining that other modders have received the same rejection message in the past. “…Turns out sometimes it’s just a mistake Steamworks employees [make], and it can be reverted.”

As of writing, then, it’s unclear what the future holds for the long-awaited Classic Offensive.