Earlier this week, Valve finally showed off DOTA 2 to the public via a $1 million pro gaming tournament at Gamescom. At the time, the game's developer Valve announced that this stand alone sequel to the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients would officially be released sometime before the end of 2011. However Eurogamer, in a chat with Valve's founder Gabe Newell, has learned that DOTA 2 won't make that date after all.
Newell said that while Valve plans to launch an invite only beta for DOTA 2 in 2011, followed by a public beta. He added, " We'll just go into progressively wider and wider distribution. I don't think it'll be shipped until next year." The game itself has been in development for some time before its reveal this week under the charge of "IceFrog" the somewhat mysterious and current head developer of the Warcraft III DOTA mode.
Earlier this year Valve took a big step and made one of its most popular games, Team Fortress 2, free to play with revenues generated via purchases of in-game weapons and items. However Newell said that they have yet to make a decision about what DOTA's 2's business mode might be like. He said, "The problem isn't to figure out what your monetisation strategy is. If you have something with a super careful monetisation strategy and it sucks, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is to do something that resonates well with the existing Dota players and creates a vehicle for new players to join into the community. That's the hard problem. That's the interesting one to solve."
In addition to the game itself, Valve has put in an extensive spectator feature via the DOTA 2 web site with a live scoreboard with lots of stats available to check out as the matches progress. The DOTA 2 tournament will continue through Sunday at GamesCom
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