Recently, a lot of hype has been circulating surrounding the Source 2 release on CSGO. Speculations about the incoming engine upgrade has been prevalent for a while, but what added fuel to the fire recently was the rumour that suggested the release of Source 2 on May 18th. Amid the atmosphere of excitement, VNN Tyler went further and said in one of his streams that the Source 2 release might be sooner than expected. You can read a full list of leaks about Source 2 rounded up here.
Another speculation on Reddit which predicts the map remakes after the engine upgrade drew the attention of Ido Magal – an employee of Valve corporations and the project lead of CSGO.
Reddit user u/YourGenericName was messing around with the files of Half-Life: Alyx when he found out a model for a stack of cardboard boxes which were filed under ‘cs_militia’. According to him, The file was named as ‘boxes_garage_lower.mdl’ and was missing its texture. What was more shocking was when he decided to look at the models for the older versions of cs_militia on CSGO and CS: Source. Both the games had the boxes’ models under the exact same file name, ‘boxes_garage_lower.mdl’. He further mentioned that the file structures of militia on CS:S and CSGO were almost identical other than some models and texture changes.
The Reddit post also states that maps with a “large number of Half-Life 2 assets” are very likely to get remakes. These include Militia, Office, Mirage, Assault and Italy. The reason behind his assumption lies in the fact that Valve already had to remake all Half-Life 2 assets for Alyx, “so the only thing left is the small amount of map specific props.”
What happened next might be a saddening news for CSGO fans. When another Reddit user asked about the release date of Source 2, u/YourGenericName informed him about the leaks by VNN Tyler which suggested the release being in under a week. That’s when Ido Magal stepped in. The Valve employee mentioned how these sorts of rumours are “great” because they get to figure out the community’s demands. However, he also said, “Just remember that sometimes the rumours are totally bogus,” which can directly hint towards the release not being so soon after all.
While Ido didn’t shed any light on the actual release date of Source 2 for CSGO, judging by his words the release might be delayed. The delay can likely be due to the Valve employees working from home amid the lockdown, but still chances are that the delay wouldn’t be that significant.