Valve files for trademark for ‘CS2’, believed to be Counter-Strike 2

Valve has applied to trademark the term ‘CS2’. In recent weeks, more signals have been circulating that Valve is working on Counter-Strike 2, or at least Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in the Source 2 engine, and this is one of the signals from Valve itself.

Valve has filed for trademarks with the US Patent & Trademark Office for ‘CS2’ in two forms. One as a gaming software and one as a gaming service. The applications were discovers by Twitter user @aquaismissing. There is currently no official confirmation or announcement from Valve itself about a new part in the popular multiplayer shooter series.

In recent weeks there have been several reports about Counter-Strike 2. A game journalist reported that the game will be released this month based on several of his sources. There are also references to CS2 in an Nvidia driver and in the Steam backend.

It’s not entirely clear whether this would be a completely new game or the same content in a new version of Valve’s Source engine. Given the existing, large market for leagues and skins in CS:GO, there’s a lot to be said for as much interoperability between existing and new versions of Counter-Strike as possible.