There is no doubt that the process of regulation and confirmation of the Activision-Blizzard purchase is filling rivers of ink in forums, news and social networks. Not only for the fact that it is the biggest purchase ever made in the video game industry, but for the fact that this could mean the definitive loss of Call of Duty on SONY consoles. However, there is a counterpart that we could see appear as a replacement and it comes from the PC world. We are talking about Counter-Strike 2 on PlayStation.
SONY, said from its own mouth, has never managed to create its own franchise that can replace the popular Activision saga in the event that once it is owned by its greatest rival, it decides to cut the tap in the form of new games. Even though there is talk of agreements between the two companies, the PlayStation board of directors have not decided to sign them and the daunting job of creating a counterpart can take them years to achieve. However, there is a franchise, very popular on PC, that could be brought to consoles exclusively for PS4 and PS5 and that could absorb Call of Duty players by its nature.
Counter-Strike 2 on PlayStation, but not on Xbox?
Although there are clear differences between the two games, it can be said that Valve’s game was a great influence on Activision and shares paternity with classics such as Unreal Tournament and Quake 3: Arena. The difference is that it is still in force with a number of concurrent players on Steam in its umpteenth version, which is close to 1.5 million at the same time. Simply, an outrage if we take into account the seniority of the game.
The release of Counter-Strike 2 has caught us by surprise, mainly due to the fact that we were expecting a transfer from CS:Go to the Source 2 engine, but they have not been satisfied with this and Valve has decided that the game will be released in its free platform in summer 2023 and for PC. What incentive can Gabe Newell’s company have then in releasing the game on the SONY console? Well, the incentive would come from the other part, which would seek to convince the creators of the game of a version for PlayStation consoles.
Counter-Strike 2 for PlayStation would work on the PlayStation Network for online play and would not use Steam, we would have the same ability to create content as in the PC version, but in this case both Valve and SONY would take a royalty. In principle there would be no cross-play with the PC and the console version would come as a gift with the PSN and would receive a progressive update of maps and skins of weapons and characters. All this to alleviate the lack of Call of Duty with a game that is already done and is successful.
Its viable?
Not only is it technically viable, but SONY Interactive Entertainment has been paying huge amounts of money in advertising on Call of Duty, and said money can be transferred to a third party that has a counterpart and the most similar one and that has the most numbers at the moment. It is Valve’s game because it not only has a ready-made name and community, but we also have to add that other alternatives such as Battlefield are in the doldrums.
What they make money on PlayStation is mainly with the millions of PSN subscriptions that are paid periodically and having Counter-Strike 2 on PlayStation, but not with a simple conversion, but as something with a community around it can serve to alleviate the loss of CoD with some renown. Of course, everything will depend on whether Valve gives in and decides to work with SONY. The last time they did it was on PS3 and things didn’t go very well.
There would also be a version for PS VR 2.
Since it is a game with very low requirements and the fact that it is designed to work on high frequency displays on PC, it is ideal for conversion to SONY VR and become one of the the spearheads and in a true Killer App. At the moment Valve has not said anything about a VR version of the game, but since the moment it works under Source 2, the Half-Life: Alyx engine we would not rule it out and It’s not as far-fetched an idea as it sounds.
