After eleven years of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve replaced the game with its next successor, Counter-Strike 2. While CS2 brought a lot of excitement amongst the fans, the developers faced a lot of backlash from the players due to the presence of bugs. In addition to that, playing against cheaters has become common in the game. Upon summing up all these issues, one can understand the reason behind the declination of the CS2 player count after the launch of the game. 

One of the CS2 esports content creators, Ozzny, shared the average player count of 2023 on his Twitter, which shows the decline of the average player count from October 2023. Ozzny writes, "CS2 has officially hit its lowest average player count for 2023."

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Digging Deep Into Counter-Strike 2's Declining Player Count

Before the current low average player count, Counter-Strike's player count was the lowest in January 2023, followed by an 18.81% decline in July 2023. While the player count did shuffle before the launch, the numbers declined consistently after the game was out. 

Counter-Strike 2: A Buggy Release

During the beta days of Counter-Strike 2, the game had a lot of bugs, creating a sense of frustration among the players. To resolve the bugs, Valve did release back-to-back patches, but it had a minor effect on the player's experience. 

Starting with the infamous Michael Jackson peak, which went viral last month. While the Michael Jackson Peak was a glitch, people started making content around it, even tutorials on performing MJ Peak in CS2. Apart from the MJ Peak, bugs like Human Turrent Peak, inaccurate 10-second bomb sounds, inconsistent subtick movement, and many more bugs frustrated the players.

While addressing the bugs, popular Counter-Strike player s1mple writes, "I can clearly tell that if you want to become CS2 pro you still have 3 months, don’t play this shit game rn, wait for updates." While most of the bugs have been fixed, players did maintain distance from the game for a while, which can be the reason for the low average player count. 

Facing Cheaters In Counter-Strike 2

Almost everyone who has got their hands on CS2 must have played a game against cheaters. Nowadays, cheaters in CS2 have become very common, resulting in a poor player experience. Many clips related have gone viral on the internet, showcasing the increasing number of hackers in the game. 

The hackers made their way into the game back in the alpha days. One of the most popular clips of the renowned streamer Timthetatman, where he entered into a game with a cheater went viral in March 2023, when the game was in the alpha stages. 

Counter-Strike 2: Same Old Content

New in-game content helps in retaining old players and attracting new players. After years of playing CS:GO, fans expected to see new content like cases, maps and modes in the games, but Valve has yet to release either of the content. 

With the launch of CS2 and the removal of CS:GO, fans were disappointed as it felt like the game was just a rebranding of its predecessor. The same old in-game content might be another reason players aren't sticking with CS2 and the game is losing its player base. 

If we look at the upcoming slate of zombie games, arguably the most hotly-anticipated is State of Decay 3. Fans have been patiently waiting for Undead Labs’ ambitious third entry in the series, but as the months pass by, patience is becoming thinner.

Now is the time for Undead to put everything it has behind its next game, but unfortunately, that also marks the end of the line for its beloved State of Decay 2, which today gets its last ever update.

Thankfully, this 38th and final patch will see the State of Decay 2 go out in style. This substantial update essentially sets it up for the future and gets it in the best possible shape with quality-of-life improvements, balancing changes, adjustments to event rewards, and some bug fixes.

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What Does Update 38 Bring To The Game

One of the biggest changes in Update 38 is the addition of community inventories. From the community screen, users will now be able to access the stashes of all other survivors in their base. This makes swapping, organizing, and storing gear so much easier.

For people trying their hands at the State of Decay 2, they also need to factor in a new momentum mechanic that will slow their vehicle if they drive through water. While 4x4s will be affected less by the water resistance, it is an added splash of realism that players will need to watch out for.

Apart from the gameplay changes, Undead Labs has not only added some brand-new clothing items but it has also generously unvaulted any past time-gated content. It mostly has seasonal gear for events like Halloween and Christmas. Several weapons and vehicles have also been added to the world spawn pool.

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Will the State Of Decay 2 Go Offline?

Update 38 is currently live in the State of Decay 2. Users will be able to check out every single change in the full set of patch notes here. Although this is the last update for the game, Undead Labs has already assured it won’t be taken offline.

While State of Decay 2 is still worth your time, the home stretch of the agonizing wait for the State of Decay 3 release date now starts. For players suffering from State of Decay fatigue, there are several other zombie games to try out for now.

The team responsible for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has been disbanded, as per a report from French media outlet Origami. In a video posted, Origami reports that the team behind The Lost Crown was disbanded despite seemingly positive reports from developers on their experiences working on the game.

Per a tweet by Gauthier Andres: "I've heard and read 'It was the best game production in my entire life' three or four times in a single weekend while getting information on the game's development. One after the other I was told it was seen as a beacon of hope to create a safe space for people that were burnt out by Beyond Good & Evil 2. The team has been disbanded by Ubisoft."

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Now Sequel For Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown

The video also states that the game’s fate was effectively decided just a few weeks after its release. The core game development team reportedly fought to get a sequel or at least more expansion beyond the single “Mask of Darkness” expansion, but Ubisoft allegedly needed more help on other projects that had better sales potential.

According to the report, The Lost Crown did not meet the company’s expectations, and executives expressed concerns that a sequel would cannibalize long-term sales of the first game. The game was developed at Ubisoft Montpellier, which employs hundreds of people and was last known to be working on the infinitely-in-limbo Beyond Good and Evil 2.

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The Team Has Shifted Focus To Other Games

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Senior Producer Abdelhak Elguess sent the following statement to IGN, "I'm extremely proud of our team's work and passion at Ubisoft Montpellier to create a game that resonated with players and critics alike, and I am confident in its long-term success. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is now at the end of its post-launch roadmap with three free content updates and one DLC that was released in September.”

"We are now focusing on making the game available to more players: it was recently launched on Steam, and will be available on Mac by this winter. Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shifted to other projects that will benefit from their expertise. We know players have a love for this brand and Ubisoft is excited to bring more Prince of Persia experiences in the future." 

The doors on The Wolf Among Us 2 haven’t been closed yet, despite rumors suggesting otherwise. Recently, a whistleblower claimed development of The Wolf Among Us 2 was in peril, and the team at Telltale was at a "critical point where they might have no choice but to shelve it."

In a statement shared with Eurogamer, Telltale has ensured that work on the game continues. "As a rule, we don't comment on rumors and unsubstantiated Reddit threads," a Telltale PR told us. "But development on The Wolf Among Us 2 continues and we're excited to share more about the game with Telltale fans and our community when the time is right."

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When Is The Wolf Among Us 2 Coming?

The Wolf Among Us 2, will be set in the world of Bill Willingham’s Fables comics - was originally announced back in 2017, but development was stopped when Telltale Games faced significant lay-off and was shuttered in 2018.

It seemed like the end for the sequel; however, a little less than a year later, it was announced Telltale was being resurrected under new management - a surprise development that would eventually see The Wolf Among Us 2 re-announced, with the project kicking off in pre-production.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 To Launch On January 2025 For PC

With the first anniversary of Spider-Man 2’s PS5 launch just a few days away, developer Insomniac has announced the acclaimed superhero sequel will launch for PC on 30th January next year. Insomniacs isn’t ready to make platform-specific enhancements just yet, but it has confirmed Spider-Man 2’s PC port will come with all the extra content released through the game's various free post-launch updates. 

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 comes to PC in two versions. One will be the standard variant, which comes with all the above, plus a pricier Digital Deluxe Edition. The latter packs everything that the standard edition offers, alongside ten exclusive suits - five for Peter and five for Miles - plus early unlocks for Peter's Arachknight suit, Miles' Shadow-Spider suit, and the Web Grabber gadget.

The Deluxe Editions also offers +5 skill points and some extra photo mode items. It’s imperative to note that anyone who pre-orders the base game also gets the Arachknight suit, Shadow-Spider suit, Web Grabber, and +3 skill points.

Netflix’s push into gaming might not be going as planned. First reported in Game File and confirmed by Netflix, the streaming giant has discreetly shut one of its studios, the first in three years since it started foraying into gaming.

According to Game File, the shut studio was known as Blue. In 2022, the company announced it hired former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny to run the studio.

Since then, Blue has roped in several game industry veterans with experience working on high-profile franchises including Halo and God of War.

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Netflix AAA Game Studio Shut Without Launching a Game

If reports are to be believed, Blue was developing a multi-platform AAA game for an original IP but was shut down before the could be announced or launched. Netflix has released a steady stream of games on its platform since the start of its gaming experiment in 2021.

Though it started with a small handful of hyper-casual mobile games, Netflix’s offerings have expanded to include mobile exclusive ports of iconic games like Grand Theft Auto and Hades its own internally developed exclusives like Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals.

Netflix also acquired several studios to support its gaming arm. The most recent additions were a mobile game studio in Helsinki, a new studio in southern California, and Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox. But with the closure of Blue, Netflix’s trend of expansion might be over as well as its grander AAA ambitions.

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Netflix's Latest Game Will Take You Back To Your Childhood

Netflix is launching Minesweeper as part of its selection of subscriber-only games, and the game is now available for iOS as well as Android users. The classic puzzle game that most people know from Microsoft Minesweeper, available in Windows 11 and versions dating back to 1990, has fresh colorful graphics and new modes.

Netflix’s take on the classic game looks a whole lot like the old Minesweeper, but it adds a Journey Mode that takes players to different levels across world stages as well as unique daily challenges.

While looking for and flagging sea mines on a grid is a logic puzzle that’s often cloned in plenty of money-seeking games on the Play Store and App Store, Netflix subscribers will not find any in-game ads or microtransactions in the streaming service’s new edition.

Games might not be the biggest reason subscribers come to Netflix, but a lot of indie games, aged triple-A titles, and now Minesweeper’s S-tier idle time-killing abilities coming to the service continue the company’s attempts to maintain the stickiness of its service with subscribers.

Naughty Dog’s next title will reportedly focus on giving players more freedom. Well, that’s what minnMax founder Ben Hanson said. He claims to have received some information about the secretive project from “somebody very in the know, who worked on the game.”

“The tone was like, you are all not ready for how amazing this thing is going to be, and the tone was—I’m not going to say the game that they referenced to compare it to because I don’t want people to be like, MinnMax said it was going to be exactly like this—but they compared it to a game with a lot of player freedom.”

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Naughty Dog Not Focused On Traditional Narrative

Hanson added that Naughty Dog’s upcoming game was compared to Hitman. In 2023, Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann said that he would like the studio to focus less on traditional narrative in future projects.

“I’m more recently intrigued by stuff like Elden Ring and Inside, that don’t rely as much on traditional narrative to tell a story,” he told The Washington Post. “I think some of the best storytelling in The Last of Us – yes, a lot of it is in the cinematics – but a lot of it is in the gameplay, and moving around a space, and understanding a history of space by just looking at it and examining it.

“To me that, right now, is some of the best joy I get out of games – [those] that trust their audience to figure things out, that don’t hold their hand. That’s the stuff I’m really intrigued by going forward.”

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Many Games Under Development At Naughty Dog

Druckman added: “I think those are tools in your toolbox and it’s about how to use all these different aspects – some of it from other media, some of it [as] found notes and environmental storytelling.

“I think there’s a way to push that stuff forward, at least, for the kind of games we make at Naughty Dog. I’m really intrigued – again, [we’re] never resting on our laurels, and trying something a little bit new, a little bit different, that not everyone’s going to like, but that’s okay.
 

“And again, it’s stuff that we’re working on now – I can tell you that the teams are very excited by the different projects we have at Naughty Dog.” In July, he said that there are several games under development at Naughty Dog. These games include “multiple single-player projects,” but he emphasized that while they won’t all be The Last of Us titles, they will have a similar goal.

“We create experiences that are steeped in story and character, especially relationships,” he told the LA Times. “The stories have some sort of philosophical core that everything is going to revolve around and feed into.”