Valve announced over on the official Counter-Strike: Global Offensive page that the game is now wholly free-to-play. Originally the game’s offline mode was free-to-play for anyone who didn’t want to waste their time playing against other human beings, but now the whole game is free-to-play, including the online multiplayer.

Gamers can now hop into team deathmatch, elimination, or the new Danger Zone mode, for free. The Danger Zone is Valve’s lo-fi attempt to tackle the Battle Royale mode. The reason I say “lo-fi” is because it only supports up to 18 players per map and there are no vehicles. In the free-for-all version of the map there are 16 players on the map and the last one standing is the winner. For the squads there are up to 18 players per map. Yeah, it’s absolutely sparse compared to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite both featuring 100 players, along with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. In fact, it kind of seems like a joke mode compared to the other games.

According to the FAQ, the squads support teams of between two and three players. The weapons and items will carry over from the standard modes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

You’ll be able to either scavenge for weapons in the Danger Zone mode or call in crate drops to supply you with the gear you need to defeat the other players. You can also rescue hostages scattered throughout the map to earn some points.

Now if you already own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive you can continue to play as a free-to-play title and everyone who owns the game is automatically upgraded to prime status.

If you have never installed the game before you can upgrade to the prime status for $14.99.

Additionally, Valve has added a special Danger Zone Case that features 17 community-designed weapon skins, including the Horizon knives as rare specials.

Some gamers are angry about the change to free-to-play because the game has been suffering from cheaters and hackers in recent times and Valve hasn’t done anything to address that.

It’s unlikely that the cheating and hacking will subside now that the game is free-to-play. More than anything it will invite in even more scammers, botters, cheaters, hackers, modders, schemers, and scoundrels.

You can check out the free-to-play version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive right now over on the Steam store.