After eight years of development, community mod project ‘Classic Offensive’ has shut down with Valve issuing a cease and desist just hours before launch.
Classic Offensive was a community-led idea that had developers remaster some of the best elements off the original Counter-Strike game.
Valve initially allowed developers to run the project when it was proposed in 2017 but after eight years of work they have done a complete U-turn and called a halt to the idea.
Classic Offensive shut down
Even though the Classic Offensive team worked through CS:GO breaking on various updates, efforts continued well into 2025 with hopes that the game could launch on Steam one day.
Classic Offensive took to its official X page on Wednesday night to confirm the news, with a lengthy statement explaining the situation.
https://t.co/d0RMvuK9jo #AllowClassicOffensive pic.twitter.com/Qz3bHg1a9E
— Classic Offensive (@csco_dev) May 7, 2025
There was A LOT of support for the project and after it was officially announced that development will stop following eight years of work, the Counter Strike community was sent into a frenzy.
The tweet has now reached almost 10,000 likes and the hashtag #AllowClassicOffensive was even trending at one point, with gamers left seething at the decision. But why has the project been cancelled?
Although development was allowed on the project, there was signs at the end of last year that the game wouldn’t be allowed an official release.
With the project ready to go in October 2024 it was submitted to Steam for review however just three months later the proposal was turned away as the platform said it ‘wasn’t a good fit’.
WATCH: Classic Offensive trailer
Despite the setbacks, Classic Offensive was expected to launch this week right up until it received the all important cease and desist from Valve just hours before release.
The statement from Classic Offensive said: “In follow-up communications, [Valve] clarified that releasing Classic Offensive would be distributing ‘derivative content’ based on their intellectual property.”
“This situation has implications far beyond our project, raising serious concerns for the future of modding within Valve’s ecosystem. Modders should reconsider how they see Valve: A company that benefits from community creativity while being able to shut down years of work without warning, despite going through their defined process which they can drastically change at any time.”
The outrage over the project’s cancellation is understandable however futile, as it seems there is simply no going back for Classic Offensive that will now have to shut down.
