author: Miriam Moszczynska
Valve Hides Source 2 Traces; CSGO's Test Build Removed
The CSGO Beta Dev, the version on which Source 2 was supposed to be tested, has disappeared from Steam. This has triggered a new wave of speculation about the game's transition to the new engine.
This year has seen a ton of news about CSGO's transition to Source 2, and Gabe Follower, a user well-versed on the subject, has shared a new discovery. Here's the thing, Valve has decided to remove the version of the game that the developer used to track progress on the (almost) mythical engine.
A strange play on Valve's part
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta Dev is a version of CSGO, which Valve was using for testing. Today, it disappeared from Steam, sparking curiosity among gamers. Gabe Follower wrote that his spying on the developers' activities is over.
Source 2 just around the corner or buried?
There is no clear answer to this question, but what we do know for sure is that the elimination of the beta dev version does not equate to the squandering of the chance to move CSGO to Source 2.
After all, developers have been testing version 1.(38).4.0 of CSGO (which is supposedly to be the one on the new engine) on a publicly available game model with the App ID of 730. Such a situation took place at end of August, and you can hear more about it in Gabe Follower's material.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that there is also the option that the Beta Dev has not been removed, but only hidden. A player by the handle BeepIsla pointed out an example of a "removed" CSGO: Valve Dedicated Server. Although the application was deleted 8 years ago, it is still used by the developers (changes to this version appear regularly).
What actually disappeared was a preview of the "In-Game" status and access to rich presence information, which is most valuable for leakers and data miners. Nevertheless, the topic of CSGO's transition to Source 2 is still in question and will remain so until Valve makes an official announcement.
