In a rare move for the company, Steam owners Valve announced a new game - one over 10 years coming. On Mar. 22, Valve announced Counter-Strike 2, the follow-up to one of, if not the most popular games on the planet, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Here's how much the move will cost.

Counter-Strike 2 is actually the fifth game in the tactical shooter series that pits terrorists against counter-terrorist operatives in tense, close-quarters battles. CS:GO was, until CS2, the latest entry in the series, regularly boasting over a million players at any given time.

The game has a large esports presence and has inspired other games like Riot's 2020 shooter Valorant, which features similar gameplay.

Is Counter-Strike 2 Free-to-Play?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive originally was a paid game but became free-to-play after an update in 2018. Valve has announced CS2 will also be free-to-play and act as an update on top of CS:GO. Furthermore, CS2 will carry over progress, such as weapon skins, from CS:GO, meaning veteran players will have access to all their hard-earned items in the new game.

In a series of videos Valve also revealed technical and gameplay improvements being made in CS2, including more immersive smoke effects, updated visuals, redesigned maps and improved hit registration and action response times.

To get a taste of the new game, CS:GO players can opt into a Closed Beta session for CS2 that's running now for players selected and approved by Valve.

This article was originally published on dbltap as Is Counter-Strike 2 Free-to-Play?.