Counter-Strike co-developer reportedly arrested over child sexual abuse

Cliffe was taken into custody in the early hours of Thursday morning and has not been charged with a crime as of now.

| Published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 17:32 [IST]

The co-creator of one of the most popular and most played FPS game around the world Counter-Strike has reportedly been arrested by the Seattle police. While many gamers hold the developers behind the game in high regard, Jess Cliffe the co-creator of this game has been arrested over allegations related to sexual exploitation of a child.

Counter-Strike co-developer arrested over child sexual abuse

As reported by Kiro 7- a local Seattle news site - Cliffe was taken into custody in the early hours of Thursday morning and has not been charged with a crime as of now. After the hearing, he was denied bail.

From what we have come across, police haven't revealed any hard information or whether an actual child was harmed or not. Meanwhile, after the incident was brought into the light, gaming giant Valve, who is the employer of Jess Cliffe has stated that his employment is currently suspended until they get to know more about the case.

"We are still learning details of what actually happened. Reports suggest he has been arrested for a felony offence. As such we have suspended his employment until we know more," a spokesperson for the company told gaming blog Kotaku.

While the developer seems to have found himself on the wrong foot, Cliffe had created Counter-Strike along with designer Minh Le in 1999. It started as a mod for the classic first-person shooter Half-Life. Cliffe is also said to have voiced the popular phrases in the game such as "bomb planted", "terrorists win", "fire in the hole" etc. Cliffe has also worked on Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Portal 2, according to KIRO 7.

However, Valve obtained the rights later and had released Counter-Strike as a standalone game back in 2000 and has been supporting it ever since. Today, the newest version of the game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, is among the most popular games on Steam and in India as well. It has more than 637,000 peak concurrent players according to Valve's public data. Further in its latest entry, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive raked in $341 million globally in 2017.

In any case, the story is currently in progress and we will update it as soon as there are more details available.