Valve Corporation has withdrawn permission for the fan-made Classic Offensive mod for CS:GO, a project dedicated to recreating the gameplay experience of version 1.6. The mod`s creators announced the termination of development on the project`s official X (formerly Twitter) page.
Classic Offensive was in development for over eight years, with a playable demo available since 2017. Back then, the developers had sought permission from Valve through the Greenlight system to release the modification on Steam. Valve initially approved this request and reportedly even offered assistance to the enthusiastic team. However, when the fans prepared for a potential release in the digital store in 2025, Valve rejected their new application without explanation and failed to respond to subsequent communications.
Following the rejection, the authors of Classic Offensive decided to proceed with releasing the mod via the ModDB website. Nevertheless, on the very day of the planned release, they received a letter from Valve. The company demanded the removal of the addon and immediate cessation of development, citing infringement of their intellectual property rights related to Counter-Strike. Valve explicitly stated its readiness to pursue legal action if their demands were not met.
The modders shared insights into Valve`s updated rules for fan content. According to these new guidelines, fans are generally only permitted to distribute certain types of creations: skins and maps for active Valve games, maps created using Hammer Editor, games built on Source SDK 2013 provided they do not feature Valve`s heroes or franchises, and mods for Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life under similar restrictions or requiring a special license directly from Valve. The Classic Offensive authors concluded by cautioning other modders who are developing content based on Valve`s game properties.