CSGO Source 2 could release “by end of next year”

Following recent reports that Valve’s highly anticipated Source 2 engine had been canceled, Tyler McVickers of Valve News Network has said that it is “very possible” it launches by the end of 2021.

VNN previously stated that due to the “massive library” of community content for CS:GO that would need to be ported over, the development on the engine was halted.

Although the base maps weapons will be easily ported to the new engine, more work was still required to work out a system of porting over community-made maps and skins.

According to McVickers, “the core porting job” of CS:GO from the original Source engine to Source 2 is “pretty much done, but it’s the roll-out that matters.”

He suggests that there may have to be public beta tests, lasting as much as “a year or two,” to smooth out inevitable bugs, as well as the challenge of retaining the community-made content.

What will Source 2 CS:GO be?

VNN was very keen to temper expectations about what Source 2 will actually entail for CS:GO. As far as the average CS:GO player is concerned, the change from Source 1 to Source 2 will not bring sweeping changes that are immediately noticeable.

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Rather, he argues that it will be “95%” the same, both visually and in terms of gameplay. But, where the big changes will be are for map makers, and others who use the community tools, as these will receive the biggest upgrade.

“Source 2 still retains that backwards compatibility to Source 1, meaning even if a lot of the core mechanics change, ever so slightly, and upset the competitive side, the casual side — expecting ‘CSGO remade’ — will be disappointed as well.

“The only major change you’re going to see is the toolset, and unless you make maps for CS:GO, that’s not going to matter,” he concludes.

“It’s very possible that this will happen by the end of next year,” McVickers states, “so unless you can come up with a really good reason as to why this needs to be released, maybe just wait for another Counter-Strike game, a couple of years from now.”

Dota 2 was the first game to be ported over to the Source 2 engine, and VNN suggests that Valve may next release a Source 2 version of Left 4 Dead, as somewhat of a test for CS:GO, which itself is “built on top of” L4D.