Counter-Strike (series)

Counter-Strike
The current Counter-Strike series logo.
Genres	First-person shooter
Developers	Valve Corporation Turtle Rock Studios Hidden Path Entertainment Gearbox Software Ritual Entertainment Nexon
Publishers	Valve Corporation Sierra Entertainment Namco Nexon
Platforms	Microsoft Windows OS X Linux PlayStation 3 Xbox Xbox 360
Platform of origin	Windows
Year of inception	1999
First release	Counter-Strike 19 June 1999
Latest release	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 21 August 2012

Counter-Strike (frequently abbreviated as CS) is a series of multiplayer first-person shooter video games, in which teams of terrorists and counter-terrorists battle to, respectively, perpetrate an act of terror (bombing, hostage-taking) and prevent it (bomb defusal, hostage rescue). The series began on Windows in 1999 with the first version of Counter-Strike. It was initially released as a modification for Half-Life and developed by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe, before the rights to the game's intellectual property were acquired by Valve Corporation, the developers of Half-Life.

The game was followed-up with Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, developed by Turtle Rock Studios and released in 2004. Later that same year, Counter-Strike: Source was released by Valve Corporation. Released only eight months after Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, in November 2004, the game was a remake of the original Counter-Strike and the first in the series to run on Valve's newly created Source engine.^[1] The fourth game in the main series to have been developed by Valve, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, was released in 2012 for Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Hidden Path Entertainment, who also worked on Counter-Strike: Source post-release, helped to develop the game alongside Valve.^[2] Several spin-off titles have been released for Asian territories.

Main series

Counter-Strike

Originally a modification for Half-Life, the rights to Counter-Strike, as well as the developers working on it, were acquired by Valve Corporation in 2000.

The game received a port to Xbox in 2003.^[3] It was also ported to OS X and Linux in the form of a beta in January 2013. A full release was published in April 2013.^[4][5]

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

Counter-Strike was followed-up with Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, developed by Turtle Rock Studios and released in 2004. It used the Half-Life GoldSrc engine, similar to its predecessor. It was a single-player game instead of a multiplayer one, with a "full" campaign and bonus levels. The game was poorly received in contrast to its predecessor and was quickly followed with a further entry to the series titled Counter-Strike: Source.^[6]

Counter-Strike: Source

Counter-Strike: Source was the first publicly released game by Valve Corporation to run on the Source engine. Counter-Strike: Source was initially released as a beta to members of the Valve Cyber Café Program on 11 August 2004.^[1][7] On 18 August 2004, the beta was released to owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and those who had received a Half-Life 2 voucher bundled with some ATI Radeon video cards.^[8] While the original release only included a version for Microsoft Windows, the game eventually received a port to OS X on 23 June 2010 with a Linux port afterwards in 2013.^[9][10]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (abbreviated as CS:GO) was the fourth release in the main, Valve-developed Counter-Strike series in 2012. Much like Counter-Strike: Source the game runs on the Source engine. It is available on Microsoft Windows, OSX, and Linux.

Spin-off titles

Counter-Strike Neo

A Japanese arcade adaptation of Counter-Strike, the original Half-Life multiplayer modification. It is published by Namco, and runs on a Linux system.^[11] The game involves anime-designed characters in a futuristic designed version of Counter-Strike. A selection of single-player missions, mini-games, and seasonal events were added to prolong the game's interest with players.^[12]

Counter-Strike Online series

Counter-Strike Online is a free-to-play spin-off available in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand and Vietnam. It was developed by Nexon Co., Ltd. with oversight from Valve. It uses a micropayment model that is managed by a custom version of the Steam back-end.^[13] Announced in 2012 and aimed at the Asian gaming market, a sequel titled Counter-Strike Online 2 was developed by Nexon on the Source game engine.^[14]

Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies

In August 2014, Nexon announced Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies, a free-to-play, zombie-themed spin-off,^[15] developed on the GoldSrc game engine.^[16] On 23 September 2014, an open beta was released on Steam.^[17] The game launched on 7 October 2014, featuring 50 maps and 20 game modes.^[18] The game features both player versus player modes such as team deathmatch, hostage rescue, bomb defusal, and player versus environment modes such as cooperative campaign missions and base defending.^[19] Reception from critics was generally negative with criticism aimed at the game's poor user interface, microtransactions,^[19] and dated graphics.^[16]

Reception

As of August 2011, the Counter-Strike franchise has sold over 25 million units.^[20]

References

Valve games Half-Life Half-Life Opposing Force Blue Shift Decay Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Lost Coast Episode One Episode Two Portal Portal Portal 2 Counter-Strike Counter-Strike Condition Zero Source Global Offensive Day of Defeat Day of Defeat Source Team Fortress Team Fortress Classic Team Fortress 2 Left 4 Dead Left 4 Dead Left 4 Dead 2 Other Deathmatch Classic Ricochet The Orange Box Alien Swarm Dota 2 Book Category