Counter-Strike 2 discussion comes with challenge from Newell

Valve has been in a state of nonstop motion over the last year. With Steam continuing to grow and the award-winning software of Orange Boxoccupying gamers' time across both consoles and PCs, the companycertainly has done well for itself. But what's next, you ask? Thoughthe subject has been only cautiously spoken about, it seems that theanswer could be Counter-Strike 2.

Valve cofounder Gabe Newell and director of marketing Doug Lombardi spoke recently in about plans for the follow-up to one of the biggest PC shooters of all time, Counter-Strike.The pair made no official announcements, remarking that the game is "alittle bit more like an MMO where it's constantly [being updated]," butthey did express some particular views about where the "hypothetical"sequel is headed.
"With Counter-Strike 2, there's a big question between,do we go start over from scratch and build this whole new game, do wedo something that looks more like Team Fortress 2 that is rooted in theold game but has a ton of new stuff, or do we just sort of takeeverything that's new that we've released and put that out in a newbox," Lombardi said. He continued to make note that he doubted the gamewould follow a similar "cartoony" route used for Team Fortress 2.
Newell left the topic by posing a challenge to gamers. Stating that he didn't think "that [Counter-Strike 2] would be a good fit [with Half-Life Episode 3],"Newell offered the following: "If I get 15,000 e-mails from customersin response to this interview telling me 'Of course it should be in[the next Orange Box],' then of course we'll pay attention to that."