Cosmetic Skins and Weapon Drops Coming to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Cosmetic improvements are set to hit Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Redditors trawling through Steam data ahead of CS:GO's upcoming update have uncovered references to crates, keys, and over 50 weapon skins, just a day after Valve promised to offer the community a new way to "help build up prize pools at competitive CS: GO events." 

This week’s update also include a new way for the community to help build up prize pools at competitive CS:GO events. More info coming soon!

— cs:go (@csgo_dev) August 12, 2013

Fans of the game dug up references and images of a Valve crate, an eSports crate, and keys that are likely used to open them. Anyone who's ever played Team Fortress 2 or DOTA 2—two other Valve titles—will likely be familiar with the scheme, which allows players to unlock vanity items for their characters. 

According to the finds, the contents of the crates appear to be cosmetic weapon skins with listings assigned to a specific rarity—with similarities to their counterparts in DOTA 2 and Team Fortress 2. 

It remains to be seen exactly how these new drops will affect the gameplay dynamic of CS:GO, but if their effects in Valve's other titles are to be taken as a model, then they can only have a positive effect on the game's burgeoning community. 

via PCGamesN.