Valve announces Dota 2, coming to the PC and Mac in 2011

by Christopher Grant on Oct 13th 2010 1:05PM

As expected, Valve has just announced Dota 2 – that's capital D, lower-cased ota – its "massive sequel for one of the most played games in the world." There aren't many details in the short press release found after the break, save for its platforms -- Mac and PC -- and its release window of 2011.

The title, which eschews the original's acronymic camel-casing ("DotA"), also avoids any mention of the actual original game's title, which is "Defense of the Ancients." Earlier this year, Valve filed a trademark application for the DotA trademark which led one of the game's original creators, Steve "Pendragon" Mescon -- now working on DotA-esque League of Legends at Riot Games -- to tell Joystiq that he was "surprised that [Valve has] decided to try to trademark the DotA name, because it goes against what [he] and others believe DotA means to the community."

Riot Games even counter-filed for the DotA trademark, pledging "to protect the work that [original DotA creator] Eul, Guinsoo and dozens of other modders have done to create the game," adding, "if we were to obtain the trademark, we would keep the game and the DotA name freely available to the mod community."

Update: Game Informer got its hands on the game; here's our takeaway of that preview.

Show full PR text

VALVE ANNOUNCES DOTA 2

Leading Independent Studio Reveals "IceFrog's" New Project

October 13, 2010 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Dota 2, a massive sequel for one of the most played games in the world.

Coming to the PC & Mac in 2011, Dota 2 promises to take the unique blend of online RTS and RPG action that has made Dota popular with tens of millions of gamers and expand upon it in every way.

First details on Dota 2 are available now via an exclusive on Gameinformer.com.

For more information on Valve and its games, please visit www.steamgames.com

Tags: Dota-2, Icefrog, mac, pc, Valve

Reader Comments (69)

Ooooooo

What

.... SA-WEEEEEEEEEEEEEET...

That is all

Never heard of it

*insert obligatory where's Half-life 2: episode 3 comment here*

But really, Where the f*ck is it!?

@Grey
For all we know they said screw it and went straight on to Half Life 3, and we'll have never seen it coming.

I have a feeling they are working on the next generation of the Source engine, or rather, the next generation upgrade for it, and using it for that.

They used "Dota" instead of "DOTA" to keep people from freaking out more over the copyright. Some people working on modifications for DOTA freaked out over Valve copyrighting the name. They said they had no intention of breaking out copyright violations on people.

It just seems odd for Valve to put out this kind of game. Even hiring the original guy, it seems odd.

@Drakkenfyre \
Maybe they want to branch out?

The funny thing is they said before that episodes 1-3 were Half-Life 3. There wasn't going to be a Half-Life 3 after that. Then later they said there was.

Maybe they want to expand out, It just seems a little odd is all. Valve has always been mod and modifier-friendly. In fact they even hired the guys who did Alien Swarm, and they did a port of it to the Source engine. But that's a little difference since it used their own engine.

Maybe this will use the Source engine. That would be weird.

@Drakkenfyre

Ummm wrong Valve didn't hire the original guy to make their "Dota", they got the new guy named 'Ice Frog' or something like that. The original guy 'Pendragon' is actually the one pushing for the trademark claim and trying to prevent this from happening. Although 'Ice Frog' is the one who made "DOTA" what it is today.

@RobS the 3rd

I have been saying that for over a year. The Half-Life series will take more then just a five our expansion to wrap up.

I'm glad to see this theory finally catching on. And I can't wait to play it.

OOOOOH

MAAAHHH

GAAAAAAWD

....I have no idea what Dota is...

@DarkKingSilvers
It stands for Defense of the Ancients, which is a very popular mod for Warcraft III, which is turn spawned games such as Heroes of Newerth and League if Legends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpAiLSLd6c

DOTA is a mod for WarCraft 3. Became so popular it spun-off countless imitators. In fact there is even a retail game called Heroes of Newarth that is a clone of it.

It was even made into a song by Basshunter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y

@RobS the 3rd

Oh wow. Not my type of game, but that is still really wild. Thanks for enlightening me (same to you Drakkenfyre).

If it isn't a new Bubsy I ain't buying!

@TylerDurden102680 HAHAHA haven't heard a bubsy joke in a while. Nice.

@TylerDurden102680

Whatss a Bubsy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpnal3D4dMk

The original was actually a good game. The sequel was terrible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viCUneosjw4

Most people rag on it because of that.

This has me interested.
Dota itself was always a pretty fun game, but the community was absolutely dreadful.
Now that it's a valve game, maybe the elitist jerkwads will be replaced by human beings.

You don't play CounterStrike, do you?

@Drakkenfyre
I do, actually.
I also play Team Fortress 2.
That's why I said maybe.
Even if it isn't, though, at least Starcraft 2 will probably be a little less cluttered with dota maps.
On the other hand, the last remnant of people playing warcraft 3 custom games has been primarily made up of Dota players for awhile now, so I guess the warcraft 3 community is just going to die for good now.

@Saladfork

TEAM FORTRESS PLAYERS ARE TOTAL NUBS. GET SKILL NERD!

Valve needs to focus on important games such as. Conkers games and making another Leisure Suit Larry. I think they could do wonderful things with those.

I am so confused right now...

Clearly they're not talking about DotA 2 since Valve has nothing to do with the original DotA, but I can't find ANYTHING online about Dota (spelled as specified in the article). And the press release says "Dota 2 promises to take the unique blend of online RTS and RPG action that has made Dota popular with tens of millions of gamers and expand upon it in every way."

wat.

@SpeeGold

O wait, apparently Valve hired the DotA team. I was not aware of that. Okay, this makes sense now.

They trademarked "DOTA", people freaked out.

They are naming it "Dota 2", and probably going to say it doesn't stand for "Defense of the Ancients", to appease the people freaking out over the copyright.

They don't have to release a Dota 1 to name it Dota 2. Microsoft didn't want their XBox to be named XBox 2 because it would look inferior to the Playstation 3, and they couldn't name it the XBox 3, so they named it the XBox360.

@SpeeGold

For further clarification, I was confused initially because for some reason the post only included the initial paragraph and the press release, so there was nothing actually mentioning Defense of the Ancients.

Ah. It's been pretty big news since they hired the guy.

They even hired John St. John, the guy who does Duke Nukem's voice, who tweeted he was doing voice work for the game, then he pulled the tweet later.

The whole DOTA thing with Valve is so big, I figured everyone knew it.

Defense of the Ancients. An RTS. I guess that was too difficult to type for people that have no idea what it is.

@Metal Gear

RTS/RPG to me even more precise.

Yeah, the DotA community is making a big deal of the name. lol.

I just freakin' hope this type of game or MOBA game as some would call it not disappointing. We already have a lot of these games and quite a few made it - HoN and LoL.

Oh, and incoming Dota hats to TF2.

I am only half-kidding.

@Drakkenfyre

Oh it's happening.

Let me just say I am totally against this being made by Valve. I believe they need to stop production as of this moment and work on getting another Left 4 Dead game out by Christmas. It has been a year already guys quit slacking!

Will it still have the amazing community full of decent people like the first?

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I sure hope so. There's nothing like the way everybody rushes to help you and answer your questions. And if you make a mistake, it's no big deal!

@Acosta02

You guys are joking... right?

Dota seriously had one of the most insular and elitist communites I have ever seen when I first attempted to try it out on WC3 a couple years back.

@zerokku
Erm...I think they ARE joking.

This is weird as hell.

Also, Valve, why are you working on a decades-old sequel no one was really asking for, when you still have Episode 3 and Half Life 3? Get your priorities straight!!!

I'm sure they'll do an excellent job, but where's mah half-life

awwww i need a new pair of pants now :(

So long, HL3/EP3, see you in 2013.

@DangerMouse001

I wouldn't hold my breath.

@DangerMouse001

I'm guessing they've just got a team of modders on this game like they did for Alien Swarm. HL should still be safe.

@liquidsoap89

I'd be very surprised if it's free. Alien Swarm had no promotion, it just popped up. This is getting a huge announcement ahead of its released date. I doubt we'll hear too much more until Portal 2 comes out. My comment was said in jest; i don't think HL3 will come out in 2013, but my hopes for a 2011 release date are gone.

hmm maybe basshunter will make another song about it

Basshunter - neato -

@LegendOfJustin
Not just one of the most popular mods out there, but also one of the most popular online games period. As the press release says, there are tens of millions of people who play the game, and that's not a lie.

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Dota 2

Valve announces Dota 2, coming to the PC and Mac in 2011

Reader Comments (69)

Posted: Oct 13th 2010 1:07PM thinkthis said

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