A mod for CS:GO that remakes the original Counter-Strike had intended to launch on Steam, and seemingly had the go-ahead to do so for some time. However, its creators now say that its bid to launch as its own game has been rejected, with Valve blocking its release after eight years of development.

Classic Offensive is still available as a mod through moddb, but the developers had intended to make it available through Steam, even showing off what its store page would look like. Now, the team says it is unable to release the game, even after making changes at Valve's request some time ago.

Classic Offensive Denied A Steam Release
Devs say that they got the go-ahead to launch on Steam years ago, only to be denied at the last hurdle

pic.twitter.com/7Z07uD8Mqq

— Classic Offensive (@csco_dev) January 11, 2025

"Since we've submitted our build to Steamworks, we've received an automated Steam Support message about having retired our app without any reason explained," reads a message put out by the Classic Offensive team. "This is devastating as we've worked on the project for almost 8 years now.

"We do not understand what happened, we went through Steam Greenlight back in 2017, talked to legal to know if this was possible for us to release on Steam. We even discussed with some of the developers on different Valve projects, and they have been very cooperative in helping us figure out the means of release back then," the statement continues. "After some requested legal changes due to the usage of Valve's IP, we were off on a good start, our mod page was created on Steamworks, things were looking promising and the team was extremely motivated."

After this, the team says that Steamworks (the service used by developers to launch games on Steam) told them to finish the game. Now that it's ready to go, the developers say it's been rejected without explanation.

The team insists that it "followed the requirements and recommendations to the letter", even to the "detriment of the quality of the mod" at times. The statement also claims that Valve was fully aware of the project's existence, but made no effort to stop the team in the eight years that this has been in development.

The statement closes by saying that the team will try to get in contact with Valve to discuss this. It remains to be seen if the two parties can come to an agreement.

Posted: 2 hours, 56 minutes ago
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/csgo-counter-strike-mod-remake-classic-offensive-denied-steam-release-valve/