Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta delayed, release when 'it's ready'

Apparently, some professional Counter-Strike 1.6 players apparently don't feel that the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is quite ready for prime-time, yet. Based on the feedback they've received, Valve has elected to delay the 10,000-person closed beta for the game, which was originally planned to launch in October.

Valve's Chet Faliszek didn't have a new date for the closed beta to share, but when it finally does launch, the core focus will to be address any hardware compatibility issues that come to light. "The biggest thing of those first 10,000 is we have to look at percentage of crashes. You can argue with us on bullet-spray patterns and all kind of things, but crashes? There's really no argument for that. It shouldn't be happening."

Faliszek told Eurogamer that the closed beta will only include one or two maps. Sixteen maps are promised at launch, including eight classic maps and eight "Gun Game" maps. He also explained that the beta ends, "When the community tells us. It ends when it's ready." That said, the beta will continue to be refined, updated, and include more users until everyone is playing the final release.

As one would expect, the delay ultimately impacts the projected release window, which has been "early 2012," up to this point. Extra game modes--like zombie and deathmatch--are expected to arrive post-launch.

"We have no mandate from anybody of when we have to ship this," Faliszek explained. "So we're more than happy to just keep working on this 'til it's ready to ship."