For the example: even tho it’s true that CSGO used to be a paid game, it had been free for 5 years and before that it was 15$, not 40 or however much was ow.

I think you're missing the point. It doesn't matter what the price point was. People paid for these games. The game going "free" isn't a valid justification for being like "its okay this product you paid for is being taken from you."

Would you feel the same about any other product in your life? Why is it justified when that something you paid for being taken from you is "a game."

Cs2 comes with a whole new engine which changes a bunch of things

Yeah, a lot less content than CS:GO and no new content. Seems like they could have let it bake longer before release.

Is it a bad release?

Uh is it? It literally has the 2nd highest concurrent players of any game on steam ever. it made what, 40mil in a few hours. Sure some old players are a little mad, but that is literally unavoidable, and I don't think they are dropping the game, just complaining.

Sure, but a fragmented player base impacts Valve's bottom line more than anything else, so I don't understand why this is an argument.

Oh no! A few thousand players will stay on the old game while the new one will still absolutely dominate the charts because people like new and novel.

Genuinely, who would that deeply affect outside of Valve trying to make sure the player base is all on the current game to make the most money? Why are we defending business practices that are clearly aimed at making the most profit at the expense of customer service?

Weren't we all supposed to be Valve fans because we expect better of them?

I even remember them saying that they will update CS:GO with source engine 2... Which they literally did.

People got mad because it got a new name too for beta testing. "CS:GO 2"

why deleting the old game

Because it's a multiplayer game and they don't want to split the userbase.

they were never going to be able to release a totally new game without a lot of backlash from the ~~addict~~ skin trading communities. They wouldn't want to risk their free income from the whales by splitting the player base and eventually shunning the skin investors stuck on the old game.

You make older games better by updating them. This is an update.

Because it was just an engine swap, not a new game.

Tbf they're KEEPING ALL cosmetics unlike fucking overwatch

I could manage 40-80 frames on CS:GO on my lil thinkpad. Trying CS2, I'm getting 10-30 frames. That'd be fine if it stayed closer to the top end of the spectrum, but it stutters so much that I can hardly play whatsoever. That combined with the millions of small changes they made that I have to get used to makes it a really unfun experience. Which is sad because CS:GO is one of my comfort games