Valve is making Counter-Strike: Global Offensive free to play, sort of

Valve is releasing a free version of its popular competitive first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam that allows players to play their own offline matches and spectate other players’ online and tournament showdowns.

The limited version of the game, dubbed CSGO—Free on Steam, is set to go live later today.

Valve has turned to full free-to-play for games like Team Fortress 2 in the past but seemingly hasn’t fully committed to a similar path for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, since players will still have to shell out $14.99 for the full version if they want to do anything beyond play offline matches against AI.

It’s also worth noting that the free version is set to release just ahead of the Faceit Major: London 2018 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports tournament and players using the free version will be able to spectate those professional matches through the game’s CSTV feature when the event kicks off in early September.