Nvidia drivers may have leaked Counter-Strike 2

Deep breath, here — most Counter-Strike fans have seen a strange flurry of activity stemming from Counter-Strike’s social media platforms. A new TikTok account was created by Valve under the name of Counter-Strike, the branding on Twitter has gone from fun stick figures to a far more serious branding befitting its pedigree, and secret blog posts have been found unpublished. The final culprit, however, may have been Nvidia, and it’s all pointing to an upcoming Counter-Strike 2.

Found via Nvidia’s Profile Inspector on Reddit, the drivers point to a title simply called Counter-Strike 2. They appear to have been implemented sometime in February 2023, interestingly around the same time that the Counter-Strike Twitter handle stopped posting replays and their standard fare of memes and jokes with the community, and just before a slew of changes to the social face of Counter-Strike started.

Something weird just happened. Latest NVIDIA drivers introduced support for unknown app executables called "csgos2.exe" and "cs2.exe". Why project is called Counter-Strike 2 and what are you cooking @csgo? https://t.co/U9YKlAjwgy pic.twitter.com/PU8Op9uGLq

— ‎Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) March 1, 2023

Fans have been clamoring for a Source 2 update for Counter-Strike for the last five years, to the point that many YouTube and Twitter personalities blossomed into existence based entirely on their Source 2 speculation. This, however, is the most credible source yet that something may be just around the corner. Add on to this that a new operation didn’t release between September and December of 2022, leaving many scratching their heads, and we have a stew of reasonable speculation that could be pointing towards something massive on the near horizon.

Related: The 10 best Cases to open in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

While there has been a flurry of activity from Valve in the changes to their social media platforms, they’ve been silent since February 15. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has had minor patches implemented to fix the AWP Doodle controversy, and a case and capsule were released on February 10. There may be a new Counter-Strike on the horizon, but it doesn’t appear that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is retiring any time soon.