After Blizzard Entertainment scrapped their Starcraft II follow-up to the popular Warcraft III mod – Defense of the Ancients, Valve’s own full size take on the genre and successor to the mod is going full steam ahead. The change of plans to the release of DOTA 2 was announced earlier today on Valve’s official DOTA 2 blog saying that Valve has reconsidered the original release plans for the Action Real-Time Strategy game and is now looking to for an earlier launch.
According to the post and recent rumors that the publishers initially planned to keep the game under Beta Testing Phase for a year or even longer, just until they have added enough features, heroes and iron out the gameplay that it will par with the original Defense of the Ancients mod on Warcraft III. However, the plans have changed and after some careful consideration – mostly from gamer feedbacks, Valve decided that the original plan was “dumb” according to the blog post.
Basically, the new plan is to get things over with and release DOTA 2 as soon as possible. It is projected to offer the core roster of heroes that was showcased at the international tournament held at Gamescom 2011 earlier this year. For now, the beta will remain as “invite only” as Valve plans as steady flow of updates, fixes, additional heroes and new features to the game. Although there has not been an official announcement for dota 2 release date, it is now projected to come at the end of the year or early 2012 – much better than the initial plan that would see the game being released late in 2012.
DOTA 2 will run on Valve’s Source Engine which will include integrated voice chat and various features such as the automatic take-over of computer controlled characters when players disconnected during play sessions – arguably the biggest problem in this gaming genre. DOTA 2 will also highlight an innovative coaching system where experienced veterans can have the chance to tutor newbies and amateurs. For this service, coaches will be granted in-game glamour items and specific titles. Rewards can also be obtained by creating interactive walkthrough guides, strategy guides, and contributing to the community out of the game.
