Valve Corporation has revoked permission for the fan-made Classic Offensive mod for CS:GO, a project aimed at recreating the gameplay experience of the 1.6 version. The development team announced the discontinuation of work on the modification via the project`s official page on X.
Classic Offensive had been under development for over eight years, with a demo version available since 2017. In 2017, the creators had successfully requested Valve`s permission through the Greenlight system to release the modification on Steam. Valve initially approved this request and reportedly even assisted the enthusiasts. However, when the team prepared the mod for a planned release in the digital store in 2025, Valve rejected the new application without providing any explanation and ceased responding to communications.
Following the rejection, the Classic Offensive authors decided to release the mod through the ModDB website. Nevertheless, on the very day of the planned release, they received correspondence from Valve. The company demanded the immediate removal of the addon and cessation of development, citing infringement of Valve`s intellectual property rights related to Counter-Strike. Valve stated its readiness to initiate legal proceedings if these demands were not met.
The mod developers shared insights into Valve`s updated rules for fan content. According to these new guidelines, fans are generally only permitted to distribute specific types of work, including skins and maps for *active* Valve games, maps created using the Hammer Editor, games built on Source SDK 2013 provided they do not feature Valve characters or franchises, mods for Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life subject to the aforementioned conditions, and other works only with a special license granted by Valve. The Classic Offensive team issued a caution to other modders developing content based on Valve`s game properties.
Finley Holt