Counter-Strike 2 is official, gets Summer 2023 release window

Unfortunately, the eligibility criteria for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test remains murky at best, as is usually the case with Valve. It's reportedly based on several factors like recent playtime on official servers, trust factor, and the standing of your Steam account. Naturally, Valve didn't send Counter-Strike 2 invites to players who've gotten banned from CS:GO at some point in the past.

According to Valve, the Limited Test will let players use existing in-game skins and cosmetics. Unfortunately, you're limited to playing only against other players in the Limited Test. As of the time of writing, the available modes for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test are Deathmatch and Unranked Competitive matchmaking exclusively on Dust2. However, Valve will add more maps and game modes as the Limited Test progresses.

Don't worry if you didn't get in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test. Valve plans to bring in more players until Counter-Strike 2 is out this summer. As long as you keep on the good graces of Valve, you should get your invite sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, your best bet to knowing more about Counter-Strike 2 is to find a content creator or streamer.

After much teasing, Counter-Strike 2 is finally here. We're curious to find out what else Valve has planned after releasing a much-awaited update for its most-played game. Who knows? Maybe Half-Life 3 and/or Portal 3 are next in the pipeline.

At this point last year, Valve revealed that it was working on multiple "pretty exciting" projects, with a later datamine revealing at least four.

If Counter-Strike 2 and the unannounced Dota spin-off are part of the four-part lineup, we'd love to know more about the other two soon.