LogIn"Modders should reconsider how they see Valve."
Classic Offensive had been in development for eight years, aiming to recreate the original Counter-Strike experience for modern players. Featuring fully reimagined classic maps, character models, and weapons designed to evoke the game's early days, the mod was scheduled to launch on May 7.
However, just hours before its planned release, the mod's creators received a cease-and-desist notice from Valve. Although Valve had initially approved the mod's release in the months leading up to launch, the last-minute reversal has sparked concern among fans about the future of community-made content in their games.
According to the developers' statement, Valve explained that releasing Classic Offensive would be considered sharing "derivative content" based on their intellectual property. This effectively means community-made Source mods or skins, like those for Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Day of Defeat, can no longer be shared on Steam or its Workshop. They would have to be distributed on third-party sites like GameBanana or ModDB.
However, Valve had previously approved Classic Offensive through Greenlight and has long supported modding, which played a big role in the success of their games. In fact, many of Valve's biggest titles were shaped by mods. But now, modding is becoming more limited, making the community worried about what comes next.
"This situation has implications far beyond our project, raising serious concerns for the future of modding within Valve's ecosystem. Modders should reconsider how they see Valve: a company that benefits from community creativity while being able to shut down years of work without warning despite going through their defined process, which they can drastically change at any time."
You can visit the mod's official website to see a full timeline of events, answers to frequently asked questions, contributor credits, and media highlighting the years of work put into the project.
Valve has taken a tougher stance on fan-made mods in recent years, previously shutting down projects based on Team Fortress and Portal. The situation with Classic Offensive only deepens concerns about the future of community-driven projects.
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