A new Counter-Strike game is reportedly in development and could be out later this month

More than a decade after the release of Counter Strike Global OffensiveValve is reportedly preparing to announce a new version of its pioneering tactical shooter. Additionally, a beta version could arrive as early as this month. According to esports journalist (via ), Valve has been working on a sequel to CS:GO for some time, and this game is “almost ready to go”. He says the studio recently hosted a secret playtest of the first-person shooter, involving a group of professional gamers who flew to Seattle. According to Lewis, Valve’s tentative plan is to begin beta testing the game with the wider Counter-Strike community no later than April 1. “The big priority is to get that out and then polish it, fix all the bugs and get it to the level that people have come to expect from CS,” one of Lewis’ sources told him.

As for improvements, the new Counter-Strike will reportedly feature improved graphical fidelity thanks to a behind-the-scenes move to Source 2, the latest version of Valve’s in-house game engine. Additionally, Lewis says the game will support 128-tick servers, a feature that would bring CS in line and reduce latency. Valve is also said to have significantly improved the matchmaking experience, which should make the community less dependent on third-party services like FACEIT. Valve did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment.

Rumors suggesting a new Counter-Strike game is just around the corner have been floating around for years, but there are a few reasons to give this latest report more weight. First off, Lewis has a strong track record. In 2015 he wrote a report confirming rumors that he was one of the leading professionals CS:GO teams had at the time. There is also corroborating evidence to support his claims. A few earlier this month CS:GO fans evidence found that NVIDIA’s GPU drivers contain references to “csgo2.exe” and “cs2.exe” as of February.