The lights are on
Today, Valve announced that its much-anticipated Dota 2 will be free-to-play, and garner revenue through microtransactions in an in-game store.
The move was revealed on the official Dota 2 blog. The post went to lengths to disabuse gamers of the notion that they will be nickel-and-dimed to death in order to succeed in the game, as is the case with some free-to-play games, saying, "Dota 2 will not be a pay-to-win game. All the items in the store are cosmetic, and don’t affect gameplay…. All of the heroes will be available free of charge. We believe restricting player access to heroes could be destructive to game design, so it’s something we plan to avoid."
There is also a new FAQ on the Dota 2 site that answers a number of other questions you might have about the game going free-to-play.
To register to receive an invite to the ongoing Dota 2 beta, click here.
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Oh, good. I've gotten so into playing the beta, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to live without it because I just can't pay for anything right now. D:
Very nice...Valve proves why they are so loved by gamers...again...and again....aaaaaaaaand again :)
Dota 2?
If Valve wasn't so awesome this is the time when we should be worried they're planting some sort of mind control business to take over the world. But even then, the Valve Empire would be so good...
if my computer can run it, i'm in!
I thought this was already known
Pan sounds bad, should be have decided...
Not surprising given the huge success of League of Legends. A good choice all around. Free to play is really the way to go for these types of games.
Awesome
Gabe Newell actually said Dota 2 would be F2P ages ago, in a PC gamer interview I believe it was. And besides, with all the name disputes in mind, it's hardly surprising that it would be free.
Seemed like it. I've had access to the game since Christmas. But I can't figure out how to play it, because they still haven't updated the game with an included tutorial yet...
This is old, old news.
We've known it was free-to-play for maybe a month or three now. I don't know where I read it, maybe GI, but it seemed official back then.
I've just discovered MOBA games and love them. Believe it or not Awesomenauts got me started on em. It is reeeeaaally similar to League of Legends and I'll give Dota 2 a shot too. I wouldn't even have touched Awesomenauts if not for PSPlus.
So thanks Sony for getting me to play Dota 2.