It's currently unclear why Valve moved forward with these changes in France, in particular. So far France has not enacted any new regulations to account for loot boxes in video games, though French courts did recently rule that Steam has to allow users to resell their digital games . In 2018, the French online gambling regulatory body even assessed that loot boxes were not gambling under the country's current regulation. Perhaps Valve is using France as a testing bed or perhaps the decision is intended to shift discourse within the country or Europe. Either way, Valve certainly appears to be taking steps to protect the profits it receives from loot boxes amid the growing international controve

One community-made Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map is seemingly offering Russians an alternative view of the war in Ukraine. While Valve's Counter-Strike has been among the most popular live-service titles to date, the game is currently seeing a notable uptick in interest thanks to the recent reveal that Counter-Strike 2 is officially in the works . Now, it appears one community is looking to leverage this popularity to shed light on the situation in Ukra

However, this isn't the first time a Valve product or service was indirectly involved in the war efforts. It was recently reported that the Ukrainian military is using the Steam Deck to remotely control turrets . Here, the Steam Deck runs a custom UI that allows the operator to be up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) away from the turret. The custom version is reportedly capable of installing any anti-personnel or anti-tank weapon as w

While this policy update may not have direct consequences for players, it may indicate Steam’s decision to take a better look at the websites offering the option to use in-game skins to gamble. Players engaging in this kind of activity could face sanctions from Steam, especially as Valve is both the owner of this platform and the publisher of all Counter-Strike 2 news|https://counterstrike2zone.com/ games . In the announcement published by Steam alongside this guidelines update, Valve stated that it was simply meant to provide more information on the regulations already in place on the platf

With March's huge reveal of Counter-Strike 2 , the hype has continued to build for the release of the sequel. Right now, many players are taking part in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test, and gamers seeing their friends enjoy the new game has only made the wait more agonizing for many out there. Its increase in popularity has seen many streamers join in on the fun as of late, with case openings being a key part of that. In fact, streamer Dr Disrespect recently unboxed an incredibly rare knife in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , but it's nothing compared to what Trainwreck is looking to achi

Skin gambling has been a regular activity for CS:GO fans , allowing them to bet on their cosmetics in hopes of winning better ones. Various platforms offer these services, with players placing bets on professional matches or joining lotteries using their in-game cosmetics as currency. Valve previously launched legal action against gambling sites that demanded access to the Steam API, automatically loading the users’ inventory to ease the betting process. However, since all CS:GO skin gambling websites don’t use this Steam API, players could still bet on their cosmetics if they wanted

The recent announcement of Counter-Strike 2 , set to release during Summer 2023, revived the interest for players in CS:GO skins. Valve stated that all the cosmetics from CS:GO would carry over to Counter-Strike 2 , increasing the value of all cosmetics and loot boxes listed in the community market as players try to get the rarest weapon skins available in the g

Oleksandr ‘S1mple’ Kostyliev, arguably one of the best CS:GO players in the world, was banned on October 30 for saying a Russian slur. The leading player of Natus Vincere's CS:GO squad, S1mple has been banned for aggressive behavior and the use of slurs before, as recently as July 30. Some fans are concerned that S1mple's fourth strike-out will put him at risk of incurring a permanent

Counter-Strike players have often found creative means of using the game's community map aspect with some CS:GO players recreating popular locations from franchises like The Witcher . Now, a Finnish newspaper called Helsingin Sanomat is using the same feature to share details about the war in Ukraine among Russian gamers owing to the title's popularity within the community. A custom-made map dubbed "de_voyna," a fictionalized Slavic city, was released today that aims to echo some of the cities that have been destroyed over the course of the war. More interestingly, the map contains images and voice recordings captured by the newspaper's journalists on the ground situation, all of which players can interact with in-g

In theory, there's a chance he simply never unboxes the knife, even with thousands upon thousands of cases opened. Despite all of these knives costing tens of thousands of dollars, it speaks to the impossibility of this challenge that it would still be cheaper to simply buy them. However, that takes the fun out of the hunt here. If Trainwreckstv is successful in his endeavor, he'll become the first-ever player to publicly unbox the knife trinity. It's possible it has been done before, but if it has, said player never came forward with their achievement. Once he has all three knives, it's unclear what he plans to do with them. With the future of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling uncertain at the moment, that seems to rule out that avenue, at le