If you read my mini Editorial yesterday, you'd see that I'm not happy with the state of the gaming industry right now. Today is another day, and with it brings the news that Valve has delayed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta, after feedback given by professional Counter-Strike 1.6 players. The closed beta was planned for last month, and now has no start date.
Professional CS 1.6 players were invited by Valve to come and play the game and offer their thoughts. Valve's Chet Faliszek explained that their early access was granted because they could "talk intelligently about the game", versus the masses where constructive feedback can be quite hard to come by.
Faliszek didn't say when the closed beta will begin, but when it does begin, around 10,000 people will be invited to participate. "After that we'll grow it in steps as we get a test server infrastructure and scalability," he explained. For a full read of this news, where there are lots of quotes and snippets of news, check out the source.
What I don't understand is that CS: GO is slated as a multi-platform release. On PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Counter-Strike is a game of [very] quick reflexes, and I really don't see how the game will be created simultaneously for all three platforms, while staying "king" on PC. Surely there'll be compromises, and is that what the delay is for? A smoke screen possibly? I just don't see how a twitch-based shooter can be successful on such a slow-controlled, thumb stick-based controller. But, I guess we'll see in 2012.
