But muh earbuds.
The launch of Counter-Strike 2 ruffled a few feathers. Notably, because it completely replaced CS:GO, a game optimized to run on modern potatoes, with a much more graphically intensive game. But, Valve, good or ill, isn’t stopping there. They’ve decided that the game will not support MacOS or 32-bit systems.
Counter-Strike 2 represents the largest technical leap in CS history, and our goal is to continue to develop Counter-Strike for years to come.
As technology advances, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue support for older hardware, including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems. Similarly, we will no longer support macOS. Combined, these represented less than one percent of active CS:GO players.
As Valve themselves note, these players represented less than 1% of the game’s playerbase. Which isn’t much of a surprise; I doubt Mac users do much gaming on their Mac, at least through Steam. And I can’t recall running into a 32-bit system in a while; most programs I use don’t even have a 32-bit version anymore.
Unsurprisingly, however, they will continue to support Linux. Which becomes even less of a surprise when you remember that the Steam Deck runs on SteamOS, which is Linux-based.
This isn’t a total loss for those Mac players, though. It’s worth keeping in mind that Apple recently announced their Game Porting Toolkit, which will allow Windows games to run on non-Windows systems (like, I don’t know, a Mac) through Linux.
This also isn’t a hard break for those that can’t run Counter-Strike 2, whether that’s due to MacOS or running a 32-bit system. Those users will have access to a legacy version of CS:GO through January 1st, 2024. Those who’ve recently bought Prime status between the dates of March 22, 2023 until September 27, 2023 (the latter date being CS2’s release date) will be eligible for a refund. These refunds will be available until December 1st… unless you’ve already been banned, in which case YOU GET NOTHING.
That legacy version of CS:GO is described as a frozen build that will have all of the features of the game, sans official matchmaking support. When they stop supporting it in January next year, Valve warns that aspects of the game may fail, such as access to inventories.
In essence, CS:GO is going the way of the dodo. Which isn’t too unusual. Even if you ignore the fact that there have been multiple issues with illegal activity surrounding skins, their stance still winds up being understandable considering CS:GO‘s launch effectively split the fanbase. So it’s no surprise that they’ve effectively discontinued Counter-Strike 2’s predecessor to avoid just that scenario, even if it still seems to have happened anyway (just at a much smaller scale).
Source: PC Gamer
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