Valve Software Trademarks "DOTA"
Looks like Valve Software is indeed working on a standalone version of Defense of the Ancients.
Over the weekend, Duke Nukem voice actor John St. John posted a message on his Twitter page revealing that Valve Software is working on a project related to the popular Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos mod, Defense of the Ancients.
"Had a great time in Seattle last week recording for DotA," he said. "The guys at ValveSoftware are awesome!" Sometime later the Twitter entry was deleted.
The "confirmation" arrives after Valve recruited Defense of the Ancients designer Icefrog last year, hired on to tackle an unnamed project. Although nothing official has been released by Valve regarding the supposed game's development, Superannuation recently uncovered a trademark filed by the company for "DOTA," giving the rumor more substance.
Defense of the Ancients is a custom scenario for Blizzard's fantasy-themed RTS. The object is to destroy the enemy team's Ancients--heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the maps. Players use heroes and AI-controlled fighters called "creeps" to complete the mission, leveling up and purchasing new equipment in the process.
Recently Valve released a standalone, Source Engine-powered version of the Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, Alien Swarm. The game is free to download and play on Steam, offering a 4 player co-op "epic bug hunt" viewed in a top-down perspective. It's speculated that Defense of the Ancients may also follow in the footsteps of Alien Swarm, offering a free-to-play experience for Steam gamers as well.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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chaosgs SWEET, i have been playing Dota for like 5 years now and LOVE IT. I cant wait for a icefrog/valve standalone game to be made. LOL and HON suck and HON cost money.Reply -
Heroes of Newerth by S@GAmes has already managed to get the job done quite well. though maybe steam can further approve upon it.Reply
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Ragnar-Kon Awww... that probably means Starcraft 2 will never see an official version of DotA from Icefrog.Reply
Oh well. -
Darkerson I dunno about everyone else, but I though League of Legends was pretty fun, and the whole F2P with the option to buy stuff in the store seems to be working for it pretty well. Battleforge and Demigod, while not completely the same, are still good fun too.Reply -
decoppel League of Legends was FUN, but it wasn't competitive. Heroes of Newerth is competitive BUT has balance issues of a growing game. I sincerely hope the Valve-DOTA has that stuff ironed out immediately.Reply -
fulle stm1185I wonder how much this new DOTA is going to steal from Blizzards work.Reply
Blizzard's work basically robs the Warhammer Universe blind. So I wouldn't shed your tears for them.