Valve’s most-beloved most-abandoned shooter gets its first update in six years

After years of neglect, Team Fortress 2 is finally being shown some love with a huge update planned for later this year. 

The popular multiplayer shooter launched all the way back in 2007 and hasn't had a major update in six years now. Thankfully, all that's about to change as Valve has revealed new content is on the way this summer. "The last few Team Fortress summer events have only been item updates," reads the blog post on Steam. "But this year, we're planning on shipping a full-on update-sized update — with items, maps, taunts, unusual effects, war paints and who knows what else?!"

The update will also include content made by the community. Those wishing to submit their creations should do so via Steam Workshop by May 1 for this, as Valve puts it, "as-yet-unnamed, un-themed, but still very exciting summer-situated (but not summer-themed) (unless you wanted to develop summer-themed stuff) update."

Despite updates being thin on the ground over the last few years, Team Fortress 2 remains one of the most popular games on Steam. A look at SteamDB shows that, at the time of writing, it's got around 90,000 people currently playing, placing it within the ten most played games on Valve's platform. That's certainly not bad going for a game that's now over 15 years old.

Back in May last year, following years of frustration over the lack of updates and severe issues with botting, fans started a community campaign to get the ageing title "back in good health". Acknowledging fans' frustration at the time, Valve said, "We love this game and know you do, too. We see how large this issue has become and are working to improve things." Shortly after, it released an update that fixed several exploits and other bugs.

See all the exciting titles coming to console and PC this year in our guide to new games 2023.