Valve has filed new trademarks, that seem to link with earlier rumors about Counter-Strike.
As reported by PCGamesN, the trademark filing is for the word CS2.
Here’s the full text of the trademark filing:
“trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of entertainment services, namely, providing online video games; provision of on-line entertainment, namely, on-line computer games; providing on-line computer games and on-line video games; electronic games services provided by means of the Internet; providing information in the fields of computer games and entertainment via the Internet; organization of competitions relating to video games, video game education, and video game entertainment; providing information in the field of on-line computer games and on-line video games and computer games.”
As described here, Valve seems to be covering all bases so that any mention of CS2 would undisputably be about their property, and more likely be about Counter-Strike 2.
Now, this may seem confusing but Valve never actually released a Counter-Strike 2 before now. What you may be thinking of is actually Counter-Strike: Online 2, a game that used the Source engine, but was built from the ground up by Korean developer Nexon so that it could enter the Korean game market. You probably never even played this game, definitely not if you have never been to Korea.
Taking the Korean games out of the equation, the timeline of Counter-Strike games is like so:
- Counter-Strike
- Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
- Counter-Strike: Source
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Before this, dataminers had noticed that Valve was adding the words cs2 to the code that is in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Before that, strangely enough, dataminers found cs2 mentions in the code to DOTA 2.
But it must be said, even before the dataminers found their evidence, rumors were already swirling on the internet that Valve is working on a game they have named Counter-Strike 2. Those rumors also predicted that it would be an update to Valve’s current Source 2 engine.
Now, the rumor of a Counter-Strike 2 might be different from the speculation that Valve is working on a version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that is built on the Source 2 engine.
It would certainly be something else if Valve made the call to make and support two versions of Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive did add some changes to the Counter-Strike formula, so Valve could be looking to keep supporting that existing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player base, but still take Counter-Strike in a new direction.
