Counter Strike: Global Offensive Removes Free Path To Prime, Revamps Free-To-Play Content

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It’s been nearly three years since Counter Strike: Global Offensive shifted from buy-to-play to free-to-play with a free track towards Prime status. For those of you who don’t know, achieving Prime status will match you up exclusively with other Prime players, which includes players who actually purchased the game back when it was still buy-to-play.

Valve, however, has recently made surprise changes to the free-to-play business model in an effort to make the game more enjoyable, prevent hacking, and reduce toxicity for everyone.

“We see new players entering CS:GO all the time, and it’s as important as ever that anyone in the world can pick up and play the game for free,” said Valve. “Along with all the gameplay that we made available for free, new players had access to drops, Ranks, Skill Groups, and a free path to Prime matchmaking. Unfortunately, over time, those benefits have become an incentive for bad actors to hurt the experience of both new and existing players. So today we’re revising the offering for new players.”

“New players can still play every game mode, play on community servers, and play workshop maps,” the studio explained. “However, they will no longer receive XP, Ranks, drops, or Skill Groups; those features are now exclusively available to Prime Status players.”

In addition to limiting the gameplay options available to new players, Valve is also taking away the free path to Prime Status. New players will now be required to purchase the Prime Status Upgrade to be able to play with other Prime players, and more importantly, play ranked competitive matches. Don’t worry, existing free track Prime players who got in before the business model shift will get to keep their Prime Status.

The community’s response to the changes seem to be mostly positive, especially with the addition of an Unranked mode that let’s players join matches with their friends regardless of their skill group. Although, some have also pointed out that hiding ranked matches behind a paywall isn’t the best way to attract new players to the game.

More information can be found on the Counter Strike official site.