Why Gamers Think NVIDIA Just Leaked A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Sequel
There might just be a sequel on the way, though. Sharp-eyed folks on Reddit noticed that the latest NVIDIA driver includes an application-specific profile for "Counter-strike 2" with executable names "csgos2.exe" and "cs2.exe". The profile doesn't contain any interesting settings—just some bits to make it work nicely with NVIDIA's Optimus GPU-switching tech for notebooks—but the existence of the profile itself is fascinating.
Even still, the original Source engine is relatively old and simplistic compared to more modern game engines, and extending it is probably difficult at this point. There's a reason Valve bothered to port megahit Dota 2 to Source 2, and the engine has been used for a couple of releases since, including Valve's ill-fated card game Artifact as well as the fantastic Half-Life: Alyx and the charming Aperture Desk Job.
In the end, it wouldn't really surprise us that much if Valve decided to "re-launch" CS:GO in revamped form on the Source 2 engine. As we noted above, the original game is quite dated at this point—modern hardware can pull nearly a thousand frames per second, even in high resolutions—and yet, it's still very popular. Valve hasn't announced anything yet, though, so all we can do is wait.
