@wtrabex @arstechnica

SKINS WERE FIRST ADDED TO COUNTER-STRIKE GLOBAL:OFFENSIVE ON 14th OF AUGUST 2013, AFTER THE SUCCESS OF VIRTUAL ECONOMY IN VALVE'S OTHER MULTIPLAYER SHOOTER, TEAM FORTRESS 2 - A GAME RELEASED IN 2007, WHICH ITSELF ONLY ADDED COSMETIC ITEMS ON MAY 21st 2009, AT WHICH POINT THE GAME DIDN'T HAVE A LOOTBOX MECHANIC EITHER, TAT WAS ONLY ADDED ON SEPTEMBER 30th of 2010, AS PART OF THE MANN-CONOMY UPDATE.

Prior to any of this the only place you might've been abe to see any form of lootboxes in a counter-strike series would be in Counter-Strike Online or it's sequel, for which I do not have a timeline but at the earliest that would put first gambling mechanics in the series on July 24th 2008, on the day of CS:O's release. Nearly 7 and a half years after the oficial release of Counter-strike as a game, over 9 years after the first beta for Couner-Strike, the half-life mod and, for the sake of completenes, around 5.5 years after version 1.6 released exclusively on steam, being the last numbered version of the original title, followed by a bunch of patches. Also 4 whole years after CS:Condition Zero and (nearly as much) CS:Source dropped. None of those 3 first games in the series had any aditional paid content in them officially. And neither did Team Fortress or Team Fortress Classic, or any of the Half-Life games, again - for the sake of completeness.