So we’re familiar with Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike Source. The problem these two games face is that there’s a rather divided player-base. They’re wanting more of a competition-focused game and a lot of the money in competition gaming is brought from the sponsors who want pretty games. CS 1.6 doesn’t offer that and new players are completely under whelmed by it. The point of CSGO is to make it easier for new players to get into and to organize the competitive players into their own matchmaking system like Starcraft 2 does.
From my point of view, Valve is seeing that e-sports is getting massive and they’re attempting to take the PC Counter-terrorism-FPS competition scene, because right now, there is none. CoD has died, CSS never really took off and BF is a pub game.
Take a look at the video and see for yourself if Global Offensive meets the mechanics demanded by E-sports competitions and has the visual appeal that CS 1.6 seriously lacks.

 

Update: Kotaku is reporting that CSGO will be cross-platform and gamers from different platforms will be able to play against each other. “On the PS3, players can use the game controller, the PlayStation Move motion controller or even a mouse and keyboard. PS3, Mac and PC players will be match-made against each other, clumped by skill, regardless of input device or platform.”