A new NVIDIA update containing an executable app called ‘CSGO 2’ has suddenly sparked new speculation for a potential Counter-Strike: Global Offensive sequel once again.
CSGO reached its 10-year mark last year, and with its age, many players have been claiming the game is in need of a graphical update. Throughout 2022, we saw plenty of speculation of the hit FPS being ported onto Source 2, however, it went cold as no official updates on a potential port were given.
Though after a period of silence, it now seems the speculation has picked up once again as new information on a potential port to the new Source engine has surfaced once again. This time, stemming from a new NVIDIA driver update.
Did CSGO 2 leak through a new NVIDIA update?
Reddit user, u/DAOWAce, discovered in NVIDIA’s latest driver update on March 1 that new game profiles under the name of “csgos2.exe” and cs2.exe” had been added. It was found by just digging through the code of the new driver.
Following on, Source modder, Gabe Follower, decided to do some additional digging. The option for “csgos2” now appears in every other NVIDIA driver. And looking back at previous updates, he found the option first appeared sometime in February.
Something weird just happened. Latest NVIDIA drivers introduced support for unknown app executables called "csgos2.exe" and "cs2.exe". Why project is called Counter-Strike 2 and what are you cooking @csgo? https://t.co/U9YKlAjwgy pic.twitter.com/PU8Op9uGLq
— Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) March 1, 2023
Of course, an option in an NVIDIA driver is not solid proof that a sequel or port is coming out in the near future. But it might herald some sort of new update for Valve’s decade-old game.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
A commenter did point out that rumors of Titanfall 3 and Crysis 4 were also spread through NVIDIA/GeForce driver updates, though neither has since come true. However, Gabe Follower was quick to retort that a whole host of actual games were indeed leaked in the same way.
whatever dude, but you can't deny that a lot of future games was leaked same wayhttps://t.co/6sFy7GiEUW pic.twitter.com/e4P1gdkcC9
— Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) March 1, 2023
Are there any other games ported into Source 2?
Currently, the only Valve legacy title that has been ported onto Source 2 is Dota 2, which was the very first game to be released with Source 2. But a spiritual successor to Garry’s Mod, Sandbox, is being developed with the Source 2 engine for release in the future.
Gabe Follower has mostly been leading the charge of porting Valve’s games into Source 2. They infamously worked on an unofficial port of CSGO in Source 2, but were ordered by Valve to stop the development of the project.
There are other projects which aim to port other Valve titles, such as Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Half-Life 2 into Source 2 in lieu of Valve’s silence. But as of now, there are no official Source 2 ports other than Dota 2.