There is no doubt that the process of regulating and confirming the Activision-Blizzard purchase is filling rivers of ink in the 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 it could mean the final loss of Call of Duty on SONY consoles. However, there is a counterpart that we might see appear as a replacement and it is from the PC world. We are talking about Counter-Strike 2 on PlayStation.
SONY, says with its own words, has never managed to create its own franchise that can replace the popular Activision saga in case once it belongs to its biggest rival, it decides to cut the tap in the form of new games . Even though there are talks of agreements between the two companies, the board of directors of PlayStation has not decided to sign them and the arduous task of creating a counterpart can take them years. However, there is a franchise, very popular on PC, which could be ported to consoles exclusively for PS4 and PS5 and which could absorb Call of Duty players by its nature.
¿Counter-Strike 2 on PlayStation, but not on Xbox?
While there are distinct differences between the two games, it’s safe to say that Valve’s game had a big influence on Activision and shares authorship with classics like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3: Arena. The difference is that it’s still going strong with concurrent player counts on Steam in its umpteenth release, which is approaching 1.5 million at the same time. Simply, a scandal if we take into account the age of the game.
The release of Counter-Strike 2 took us by surprise, mainly due to the fact that we were expecting a transfer from CS:Go to the Source 2 engine, but they weren’t happy with it and Valve decided that the game will be released on its free platform in the summer of 2023 and on PC. What incentive can Gabe Newell’s company have to release the game on the SONY console? Well, the incentive would come from the other party, which would seek to convince the crea tors of the game of a version for PlayStation consoles.
Counter-Strike 2 for PlayStation would run on PlayStation Network for online play and not use Steam, we would have the same ability to create content as in the PC version, but in this case Valve and SONY would take a fee. In principle, there would be no cross-play with the PC and the console version would come as a freebie with the PSN and receive a gradual update of maps and weapon and character skins. All this to compensate for the lack of Call of Duty with a game already made and successful.
Is it viable?
Not only is it technically viable, but SONY Interactive Entertainment has paid huge amounts of money in advertising on Call of Duty, and said the money can be transferred to a third party who has a counterpart and the most similar and who has the most numbers is Valve’s game because not only does it have 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 get 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 mitigate the loss of CoD with some notoriety. Of course, everything will depend on whether Valve gives in and decides to work with SONY. The last time they did was on PS3 and things didn’t go so 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 run on high frequency screens on PC, it is ideal for conversion to SONY VR and becoming one of the irons spear and in a real Killer App. Valve hasn’t said anything about a VR version of the game, but since it’s running Source 2, the Half-Life: Alyx engine, we wouldn’t rule it out and it’s not as far-fetched an idea as she looks like it.
