Christmas came early for Counter-Strike players in the form of a new battle royale mode with its own fun (albeit compact) map. Thanks to an Easter egg on that map, Portal fans think their Christmas might be coming, too. To this, Valve responded that no, there is no Santa Claus.
One room in a compound on the battle royale map, marked with a number 3, is all boarded up, but it’s possible to get inside by way of a secret entrance. It contains computers that broadcast a code. Players decrypted it to discover a line from the Portal theme-slash-meme song “Still Alive”: “This was a triumph. I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.”
Players went on to find a whole host of other oddities that they believed to be clues, which they figured could mean only one thing: an ARG was afoot. It’s actually not an entirely off-the-wall assumption, given that Portal 2 was first teased via an ARG in and around Portal 1. Valve, however, has said it’s not going for a threepeat here.
“Congrats to all who have found our Portal Easter egg on dz_blacksite!” the official CSGO Twitter account said yesterday. “We’re just having a bit of fun and the Easter egg is not a product announcement. Enjoy Danger Zone!”
When Valve News Network asked Gabe Newell via email if the Portal message was an ARG or an Easter egg, the Valve bossl tersely replied “Easter egg.”
Given Valve’s recent history of ARGs and non-ARGs that just make people say “argh,” this isn’t exactly surprising. Unless, of course, THIS IS ALSO PART OF THE ARG.