Valve has released an update that drastically reduces the effectiveness of the R8 Revolver in Counter Strike: Global Offensive. The weapon was introduced on December 8 as part of the Winter Update. It sparked swift backlash among players, because the gun is both highly accurate and is capable of one-shot kills. Players said that the gun was simply too powerful, and threw off the balance of matches.
Valve has strayed from its usual assessment process used to determine if an item needs to be rebalanced. As the company said on the Counter Strike blog: “On Tuesday we shipped some major gameplay changes in CS:GO including the R8 Revolver, and players have been voicing legitimate concerns over the balance of the weapon as shipped. While it typically takes more time to generate enough data to drive an update (and gameplay updates are always a bit disruptive), in this case it’s clear that we got the damage wrong and can respond immediately."
The developer has tweaked the R8 so that its damage output is reduced and it is slower to fire. The blog post notes that, like other weapons (such as the CZ75a and M4A1-S), it may take iterative updates and tweaks to get the best results for the weapon’s balance. The company will continue to monitor the gun’s usage and make changes as needed.
The update also other gameplay changes, including rebalancing for pistols and rifles
