If done right, this has the potential to dethrone the current console market. Personally I own an xbox for a single reason, because I got tired of having to sit at my desk to game. Some times I want to kick back in bed. If I were able to do that with my PC games I would have no use for my xbox at all.

There are valid points raised in the article above, and I think that it will face a lot of challenges. But if any company is going to have a chance of taking the gaming crown, I think Valve is the one.

I have been a Steam user for 10 years now, since its release - and while the initial days were mostly frustration, it's now all I have open on my desktop. When there's bugs, they're usually quickly resolved and design-wise, it's just beautiful.

I look forward with excitement to see just what Valve are able to do with this initiative.

People can hate on Valve's crate/weapon drops and skinning all they want, but fact remains that the eSports case initiative has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars towards a pro-gaming prize pool and that is what will keep games from falling away into history. No one is forced to buy crate keys or weapon skins - so there is no need to get bothered by it. Companies make money to fund future projects - if people want to buy crate keys and earn the company money for future developments, so be it. I'm sure a lot of those complaining will also be the first to complain when the game dies or isn't given enough budget by the development company.

@yourdem1ze Please enlighten me as to why you think this? Your comment makes it sound like CS:GO slept with your girlfriend or something.

I've been playing CS since beta 6, and competitively from version 1.0 to 1.6 and I have to disagree with you completely. Source was awful. Source is what made me stop competitive play and almost made me stop playing the game. Luckily there was a small 1.6 community that still played.

I will argue that CS:GO is miles better than Source, and like it or not, it's also much closer to 1.6 than source. The recoil patterns and hitboxes seem much more like 1.6 - I'm enjoying CS:GO immensely and have all my game settings set closest to 1.6 - the game feels very similar to 1.6, but with better graphics and physics.

1.6 will always be king, but CS:GO is right under there and miles ahead of Source.