OG Counter-Strike co-creator has "some regrets" over leaving – "A lot of the people who I still keep in touch with at Valve, I kind of notice that they're really well off financially"

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Minh 'Gooseman' Le left to work on different games

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
(Image credit: Valve)

While popular at launch, nobody could've predicted the money-spinning machine Counter-Strike would turn into. Still hugely popular, the shooter gnerates millions upon millions of dollars for Valve annually, contributing to the considerable wealth of some people within the company. Minh Le, a co-creator on Counter-Strike, left much earlier in the game's life, leaving him with some lingering thoughts about what might have been.

"I do have some regrets," he tells Edge magazine. "A lot of the people who I still keep in touch with at Valve, I kind of notice that they're really well off financially.”

"I could see what Counter-Strike had become, and it hadn't really changed in six years," Le reveals. "Valve offered me a chance to work on Counter-Strike: Source, but they didn’t want to change anything – they just wanted to upgrade the graphics. I wanted to work on a completely new game."

After what Le describes as an "amicable" meeting with Gabe Newell and a number of other Valve higher-ups, a mutual parting was agreed. "They just told me, 'You know, Minh, we feel like you'd develop better on your own and not in a professional environment,'" Le remembers.

He launched his own shooter afterward, Tactical Intervention, that shut in 2019, and has since enjoyed stints on Rust and at Black Desert Online developer Pearl Abyss. "If I had stayed at Valve, I probably could have retired by now. I took a different path, a much more challenging path," he says.

"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," he continues. "I saw some sides of the game industry that I wouldn't have seen if I had stayed at Valve."

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Anthony McGlynn
Anthony McGlynn
Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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