The co-creator of the popular video game Counter Strike, Jess Cliffe, has been arrested for the sexual exploitation of a child.
Seattle police brought the 36-year-old into custody on Thursday morning but have not yet commented further on the case.
Cliffe, who has been an employee of Valve video games since 2003 was booked just after 1am and was denied bail.
Counter-Strike co-creator Jess Cliffe, 36, was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a child
Cliffe has been suspended from Valve Games while his case is dealt with
‘Exploitation of a minor’ usually refers to child porn of varying degrees.
According to Washington state legislature, it can include elements of commercial sexual abuse of a minor or ‘depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit content,’ such as creation, distribution or possession of depictions of child pornography.
Cliffe created Counter-Strike, one of the most popular video games of all time, alongside designer Minh Le in 1999.
Valve later obtained the rights to Counter-Strike, and it has been one of the most popular multiplayer games in the world for nearly two decades.
Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter video game that was released in 2000.
Cliffe helped create the video game Counter-Strike, pictured. More than 15 years after it was released, the game still has an active base of players
Police did not say if an actual child was harmed. Cliffe does not have a criminal history
Counter-terrorists try to prevent a terrorism act. It can be played on computers and video game consoles.
Cliffe also has done level design for Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left4Dead2, and Portal2, according to his Valve bio. Counter-Strike was a modification of the original Half-Life game.
Valve says it has suspended Cliffe and has released a statement: ‘We are still learning details of what actually happened.
Reports suggest he has been arrested for a felony offense. As such we have suspended his employment until we know more.’