Counter-Strike: Global Offensive loses cross-play feature, summer release date confirmed

Back in the summer of 2011, Valve announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive would be a cross-platform game, allowing players to play with each other regardless if they were gaming on the PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. The bad news for those looking forward to that feature is that Valve has apparently decided to drop cross-play functionality in favor of providing constant updates for both PC and Mac users.

In an interview with Joystiq, Valve’s Chet Faliszek revealed “The beta has proved we want to update not just the beta, but the game itself post-launch frequently on the PC [...] To do that we need to separate the platforms so one doesn’t hamstring the other. So for that, we have removed the idea of cross-platform play — essentially make all platforms stronger by not mixing them.”

In the mean time, the summer of 2012 has been confirmed as the timeframe in which Valve will be releasing the game, although no specific dates were mentioned. We guess Valve’s decision to drop cross-play did not sit well with many gamers as apparently many petitions have popped up online in an attempt get Valve to change their mind.