Valve's 'Counter-Strike: Global Offensive' coming to Mac in 2012

The creator of the competitive first-person shooter, Valve, formally announced the game on Friday, revealing that the title will come to its Steam digital distribution service next year. Steam became available on the Mac last year, bringing with it hit titles like Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

In addition to Mac OS X, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will also be available on Steam on the PC, and via the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. The new Counter-Strike will feature new maps, characters and weapons, as well as updated versions of original levels like "de_dust."

In addition, Global Offensive is set to introduce new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leaderboards and more. The first Counter-Strike launched as a beta modification of the Half-Life game engine in August of 1999.

"Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999," said Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing at Valve.

"For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS' award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next-gen consoles and the Mac."

The new Counter-Strike is being developed by Valve in cooperation with Seattle-based Hidden Path entertainment. It will be playable at this year's PAX Prime Expo, along with the Eurogamer Expo 2011.

While waiting for Global Offensive to launch in early 2012, gamers on the Mac can get their Counter-Strike fix right now with Counter-Strike: Source, available on Steam for $19.99. The online team-based game launched in 2004 running on the Source engine that powers other Valve titles like Half-Life 2.