Counter-Strike 2 has been facing many problems recently which is affecting the trust players had on Valve. The game has seen bugs and glitches that affect competitive integrity and game health. One of the most notable and recent ones is the Michael Jackson peek, which is hilarious and annoying at the same time.
A few weeks ago, the game also had hitbox issues that created a lot of ruckus among the community. Once that chapter concluded, another one started for Counter-Strike 2 regarding player disconnection. The latest bug happens when 1 player gets disconnected and a bot is placed as a substitute.
Once the player rejoins, the bot gets instantly kicked, along with the player controlling it in-game. Sometimes these issue causes a team to lose rounds, which is crucial in a competitive game like CS2. These issues have existed in CSGO as well, however, those were fixed in the past.
Earlier this month, the game saw a reported loss of 19% of the total player base and this has continued falling. This is threatening to Valve as the issues continue to grow, making the community lose its trust and move on. Even though Valve is constantly pushing updates to restore the title to full glory, it is still far from it.
The recent bugs are yet to be addressed by Valve as of now, but a fix can be expected sooner rather than later. However, since the game has been developed on the Source 2 engine from the ground up, other bugs might arise over time, which will require immediate fixing. The same happened with CSGO in the past as well, and players have to be patient with the current issues.
Why do players and professionals feel Counter-Strike 2 is destined to fail at the moment?
When asked about Counter-Strike 2, most professionals gave mixed feedback instead of all positive. For instance, Ramus “HooXi” Nielsen from G2 spoke about his thoughts on the shooter title on release. The following was quoted by him during an exclusive with PC Gamer in late September:
It’s not better than CS:GO yet, not even close. It is way better than when CS:GO came out (in 2012) though.
He believed that the game wasn’t fully ready for competitive play and still needed polishing. Being on a cello, the player passed his opinions with both positives and negatives. Nonetheless, the game did improve over time, with certain issues here and there.
From a community standpoint, the effect is quite visible as it keeps on losing players every month. Between October to November 2023, the game lost approximately 200,000 players which is almost 23% of the peak player base. The reason might be more than bugs and glitches, but problems are still there. This might see improvement during a new Operation release, yet the fall is noticeable.
As live service games go, there are always golden times and dark hours. With new and creative shooter games releasing occasionally, players might shift over to the newer titles due to existing issues. Prime examples would be Overwatch 2 and Rainbow Six Siege, which saw a heavy downfall from which they are still trying to recover. Seeing how things are going for Counter-Strike 2, the same fate might follow.
