Will Counter-Strike 2 have an open beta?
In one of this week’s most surprising stories, Valve officially announced Counter-Strike 2. Set to release this summer as a free upgrade to CS:GO, Valve has already launched a Limited Test.
This Limited Test is only available to select players “based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team.” Some of the factors going into the decision-making include recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor and Steam account standing.
Valve has mentioned that players will be added to the Limited Test over time, but didn’t give any indication as to how many. Nor do we know how long this Limited Test will last. This begs the questions, will Counter-Strike 2 have an open beta? Or is this Limited Test it? And if so, how many more players will be invited?
These are all legitimate questions fans have that, unfortunately, haven’t been answered yet. Valve encourages players to follow the Counter-Strike blog for updated information and future announcements.
The mention of “future announcements” leads me to believe that some form of open beta will be offered down the line. As Counter-Strike 2 figures to be one of this year’s biggest launches, Valve will almost certainly want to ensure their servers can handle the demand. The best way to do that is an open beta where players can join at will.
It’s also possible that, as Counter-Strike 2 will be an upgrade to CS:GO, any sort of future beta be extended only to current CS:GO players rather than everyone. Or maybe CS:GO players get some sort of early access to a future beta followed by a weekend where anyone can join.
Simply put, we don’t know yet if Counter-Strike 2 will have an open beta, but I assume it will prior to its launch this Summer. In any case, we’ll be sure to let you know if something official does get announced.
