'Counter-Strike' creator arrested, suspended by Valve

Jess Cliffe, one of two creators of the iconic first-person shooter game Counter-Strike, was arrested and booked for sexual exploitation of a child in Seattle Thursday morning, local station KINO 7 reported Thursday. Cliffe has not been charged with a crime and is expected to have a bail hearing Friday afternoon.

In a statement provided to Mashable, video game developer Valve said that Cliffe has been suspended until more details come out.

"We are still learning details of what actually happened," a Valve spokesperson said. "Reports suggest he has been arrested for a felony offense. As such we have suspended his employment until we know more."

KINO 7 spoke to local officials who offered no specific details on the case, but who said a charge for sexual exploitation of a child typically indicates that the person is suspected of creating child porn.

Cliffe created Counter-Strike with Minh Le while the two were in college in 1999. The competitive multiplayer game started as a mod for Valve's game Half-Life, and a year later Valve hired the two designers and bought the rights for Counter-Strike, turning it into one of the most popular competitive shooter series of all time.

Along with creating Counter-Strike, Cliffe worked on level design for later Valve games, including Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead 2.