Counter-Strike 2 players in Germany will soon find themselves in possession of an "X-ray scanner" that will enable them to see what's inside containers before opening them. It sounds good, superficially—no more throwing money away on randomized garbo-tier skins—but, of course, there's a catch.That catch, as detailed in this FAQ, is that once you've scanned a container and revealed what's inside, you're stuck with whatever's inside: "Once a container has been scanned and the item has been revealed, the only way to scan another container is to purchase and claim the previously revealed item." There are no do-overs, and you can't scan a bunch of containers at one time and pick out the stuff you want. You scan it, purchase whatever's inside, then do it again ad infinitum—or just never open another container again, ever.It's not exactly a comprehensive overhaul of the CS2 container system, because seeing what's inside the case has no meaningful impact on, well, anything. "It just changes how case openings look," redditor MordorsElite wrote. "It doesn't change how much they cost or what you get. It's just a loophole to keep their lootbox gambling technically legal."It's also not new. The Counter-Strike X-ray scanner has been around since 2019, when it was rolled out to users in France in response to tightening loot box regulation in that country. Valve didn't provide a reason for expanding the system to Germany but it's a fair bet that similar reasoning is at work, and without being cynical about it, complying with the letter of the law does seem to be the goal here: Nothing is really changing except German players, along with their French counterparts, will have to do a bit more of a song-and-dance to open their CS2 containers. If you can't avoid the contents of the container, after all, then what good does revealing them in advance really do?
Beginning March 16th, players in Germany will have an "X-Ray Scanner" tab in their Inventory. For those players, containers can only be opened via X-ray Scanner. The X-Ray Scanner will come preloaded with a one-time exclusive non-tradable "Genuine P250 | X-ray", which must be…March 6, 2026
