No it isn't. Valve did not make CS 1.6, CS 1.6 was a user-created mod. Valve did then hire the mod makers to help make the Source engine (just like DICE hired the Desert Combat modders to make Battlefield 2), but Valve had no involvement with CS in its inception, nor its maintenance pre-Source. Hell, both CS 1.6 and CS:Source primarily ran on user servers, so there wasn't even any significant upkeep costs.

CS 1.6 pre-dates Steam. CS:S was Valve, but both games did not have any servers or infrastructure to manage, beyond a simple exchange server that catalogued everyone's game servers (also VAC, if the server host enabled it). It's CS:GO that started having a big back end. Your point is valid, but only for CS:GO.

It's kind of surprising how so many people in here have the history muddled.

[–] dpkonofa@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don’t have anything mixed up and you’re not right. The mod was only pre-Valve when it was still in beta. They hired Minh right around Beta 5. When Valve made CS 1.0 (way before CS 1.6) part of the official Valve catalog, they set up official servers but you could still set up community servers. When Steam came out, they required that it be run through Steam which forced everyone onto the same version of both the client and the server. You could still spin up your own server using an older version but you the game wouldn’t be listed in the game’s browser. You had to use Gamespy or HLServerWatch.

Steam forced everyone to update. It’s not 100% analogous to this situation but going from mod to standalone fractured the playerbase and codebase. This was clearly a move to prevent that from happening again. I’m indifferent to it but obviously everyone isn’t.