Developer Valve has announced a new, major update for Team Fortress 2. The popular shooter has been one of the biggest games on Steam for years, but has been somewhat neglected. The upcoming update is expected to be released in 2023, but only with the help of the community.
What kind of game is this? In the popular hero shooter Team Fortress 2, you play as one of 9 unique characters on various maps and in different modes to achieve victory. Each hero has special abilities, weapons, and tasks within the team.
Team Fortress 2 combines classic game modes like Payload, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, and more with a comic style and outrageous humor. While the focus is on team play and the objectives of each map, matches often devolve into chaos.
The combination of serious gameplay and playful features makes the shooter so popular and has even inspired new games like the successful Overwatch. Especially the outrageous characters give Team Fortress 2 a unique charm – like the quite insane German Medic:
How successful is Team Fortress 2: Although Team Fortress 2 was released in October 2007, it has been a constant presence on Steam for years – especially after the Free2Play transition in 2011. In the past 30 days alone, nearly 120,000 players have played (via steamcharts, as of February 10th) and the ratings are “very positive” at 92%.
The game has thrived over the years primarily due to the active community that has created new maps and more through the integrated Steam Workshop. In 2019, the official development was allegedly to be discontinued.
The last major update, Jungle Inferno, was released in 2017. Since then, the game has only been provided with the annual Halloween update, which brought minor new features, and improved with patches – mainly to combat the notorious bot plague.
Now, developer Valve has announced in a blog post that a new, major update is scheduled for 2023. However, the fans are expected to contribute.
Team Fortress 2: Update coming in summer, brings new content
What kind of update is that? Valve is somewhat vague but promises new “items, maps, taunts, unusual effects, war paint, and God knows what else.” However, the content is not supposed to come from Valve itself, or at least not exclusively.
Instead, the developers want to rely on the Steam Workshop. Content that is created there and deemed good should make its way into the game as official content with the update. Valve even invites fans to “get to work.”
This may sound unusual, but it happens more often in Team Fortress 2. Alone, Jungle Inferno brought 5 fan-created maps into the official map rotation. By the way, fans are not bothered by this, as they are generally some of the most popular maps.
If they were not implemented, you would have to download them yourself before starting. If they make it into the official map rotation, that is no longer necessary.
What content the fans create is entirely up to them. A summer theme is allowed but not explicitly necessary to be included in the update. Those who want to participate have until May 1st to submit their works. However, a concrete release date for the update is still missing.
If Team Fortress 2 is too colorful for you, here are some alternatives:
