Counter-Strike 2 isn't coming to consoles, sorry guys

Yesterday, Counter-Strike 2 was officially announced by Valve, basically out of nowhere. Complete with a summer 2023 release window, the follow-up to CS:GO is already shaping up to be one of this year’s most exciting releases.

Counter-Strike 2 is releasing as a free upgrade for CS:GO, but you wouldn’t think so based on the huge changes that have already been shown off. From the upgraded visuals, rebuilt maps, redesigned audio, reworked Smoke Grenades and even the complete removal of tick rate, it sounds like the title will easily fulfil its promise of being “the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history”. The devs claim that it’ll include “new features and updates for years to come”, and when you consider it’s been almost 11 years since its predecessor’s release, it seems fairly likely that this instalment will last us at least another decade.

Take a look at the trailer for Counter-Strike 2 below.

However, as Dexerto reports, it seems like it’s bad news for console users. Although some players have been invited to try out Counter-Strike 2 now, the game is only available to play on PC (Windows, specifically), and it seems very unlikely at the time of writing that it’ll come to consoles at all since the game is being offered as an upgrade for CS:GO.

CS:GO did originally release on PS3 and Xbox 360 at the same time as it did on PC, but it was never brought to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One or Series X/S, which implies that players won’t be able to access its upcoming upgrade. Of course, things could change between now and release, but Valve hasn’t hinted that it’ll be coming to any platforms other than PC. Given that it’ll be out in just a few months time, console users probably shouldn’t get their hopes up.

There’s still a lot that we don’t know about Counter-Strike 2, including its specific release date. Fingers crossed that it won’t be too long until we find out.