Counter-Strike co-creator Minh Le says he regrets leaving Valve as former colleagues cash in on CS2 windfall

Gooseman, Minh Le, is known as the founding father of Valve’s enduring blockbuster FPS game, which still sees millions of active players daily. Minh Le co-created Counter-Strike as a mod for Half-Life at the tail end of the century.

He collaborated with fellow developer Jess Cliffe in his college dorm to create a franchise that has since evolved into Counter-Strike 2 and now rakes in billions of dollars for Valve. Unfortunately, Le left Valve before it became the forefront of gaming, and recently, he admits to harboring mixed feelings about his choice, given how financially prosperous his former colleagues have become.

This revelation came from a recent chat with Edge Magazine. Le worded his lingering thoughts and explained, “I do have some regrets. A lot of people who I still keep in touch with at Valve, I kind of notice that they’re really well off financially.”

While this might seem like a relatable moment for many, in Le’s case, it’s heightened given the fact that Counter-Strike 2 has become a money-printing juggernaut, not just because of gameplay and eSports, but due to the elusive nature of rare cosmetic weapon skins.

Le joined Valve when the company realized Counter-Strike’s potential. The company hired him at the ripe age of 20 in 2000 to turn CS into an official release. Given his young adulthood, he was teeming with excitement to join his idols. He mentioned, “I held Valve in such high regard. They were my idols. It was surreal that they recognized the game.”

Counter-Strike underwent rounds of revisions to introduce turn-based matches and an in-game economy, setting it apart from the rest of the FPS crowd at the time. However, after a year at Valve, Le felt stuck. He said: “I could see what Counter-Strike had become, and it hadn’t really changed in six years.”

Valve tasked Le to work on Counter-Strike: Source, which was more of a visual overhaul with no innovations. Le, on the other hand, wanted something new. The result was an amicable split after a sit-down with Valve boss Gabe Newell and different execs. He recounted: “They just told me, ‘You know, Minh, we feel like you’d develop better on your own and not in a professional environment.” He stated:

If I had stayed with Valve, I would have been able to retire by now. I took a different path, a much more challenging path. But I feel like it was a much more rewarding path in terms of my career, my development, and my growth as a developer and a person. I saw some sides of the game industry that I wouldn’t have seen if I had stayed with Valve.

Buy the Razer Viper V3 Pro Counter-Strike 2 Edition on Amazon