Development of a Counter-Strike 1.6 remake has been "frozen" as Valve silence leaves its future in doubt

While you can still get your hit of classic Counter-Strike on Steam, the original CS experience is getting an unofficial remake. Or rather, it was. Last year, it was revealed that a team of seasoned Counter-Strike modders were creating CS: Legacy, a ground-up remake of CS 1.6 in Valve's 2013 Source Engine. However, just a few months after announcing the project, the devs behind it received a message from a Valve employee that put a big question mark over it, but had no further communication with the company about CS: Legacy's viability. Now, in a message outlining its plans for 2026, the devs confirm that they have "frozen" the project, are making "one last attempt" to talk with Valve, and are putting more energy behind an all-new multiplayer IP instead.

CS: Legacy is the brainchild of the same team that created CSPromod, an enhanced version of the original Counter-Strike experience that released back in the 2000s. When CS:GO officially arrived in 2012, bringing many of the improvements and features that CSPromod sought to bring, it was parked and didn't receive any further updates. However, CS: Legacy is another attempt to bring the classic experience back to a modern audience. While it's being built in Source 2013, it isn't just a port, with "100% custom game code and game assets" and plans to make it as open and moddable as possible.

While the CSPromod team had ensured that CS: Legacy would clear Valve's licensing and SDK terms, 2025 saw the company make some changes and become more strict on fan-made projects involving its IP. One such example to point to is Team Fortress 2 Classified, which was recently forced by Valve to rebrand in order to launch on Steam. In July last year, CS: Legacy was dealt a blow after its creators were warned by a Valve employee that "the use of the Counter-Strike IP (intellectual property) might no longer be allowed without a separate, dedicated license - which could impact our ability to release CS:Legacy as a CS 1.6 remake." Despite attempts to get official clarification from Valve, the team never heard back. While it continued to develop CS: Legacy, its uncertain future saw the devs refund Patreon backers and begin work on an all-new FPS game in the Godot game engine.

In a new statement posted on X, the devs claim they still haven't received any further communication from Valve.

"Despite our repeated attempts over the past few months to get clarification, and to see how we could adapt the project to be able to release it on their terms, they [Valve] unfortunately never replied," the message reads. "Neither the original sender who reached out, nor their legal team, nor other contacts we were given."

As a result, development on CS: Legacy has now been fully halted, but could resume if Valve does give the team a solution or path to releasing on Steam.

"We will try again to reopen communication with Valve, to see if there is a way to make CS:Legacy happen. But if we still do not hear back, we'll commit fully to the original IP. Given the situation, we've frozen CS:Legacy's development and focus [sic] our efforts on our own game IP. We can't keep investing time and energy into a project that might not release. That said, should we find a solution that allows a release, we will resume development, release the project, and let the community contribute content ASAP. We think highly of Valve and we will respect their decision."

"We'll make one last attempt to reach out to Valve to see if we can bring you CS:Legacy in some form," the developers add later in the post. "And if we still do not hear back, we'll officially commit to the original IP."

As for this new, alternative game being made in the Godot engine, the CS: Legacy team shares some early screenshots of an alpha test level (the Valve shooter vibes still appear to be strong) and also reveals a few milestones that it recently hit. It's already established "a fully functional GUI," a movement system inspired by Quake, game mode creation tools and entities, and much more. Even if it can't bring classic CS into the modern era, it seems like the devs are keen to still build an FPS that calls back to the games of the early noughties.