Fans of the popular MOBA game Defense of the Ancients 2, which has been in beta since September 13, 2011, will finally get an official full release sometime this summer, to coincide with this year's The International 3 competition.
That e-sports competition will be held from August 7 to 11 in Seattle, giving fans of the free-to-play series a window in which to expect the full version of the game to come out. This news comes from Valve's own vice president of marketing Doug Lombardi, who spoke to Gamespot about the news.
This move reflects how popular Dota 2 has become in the competitive gaming world, with the South Korean distributor of the game adding $1.7 million in prize money for the game's launch in that country. Dota 2 Broadcaster for The BTS Studio, David "GoDZ" Parker, had this to say about the game getting an official release window:
"Dota 2 being officially released to the public acts as the next step for Valve in shipping the finished Dota 2 project. While anyone interested in obtaining a beta key and playing the game could have already done so with minimal work, having the ease of play that being public brings will make it a true free-to-play game in the ARTS/MOBA genre."
Dota 2 recently received a massive new update, patch 6.78. which brought huge amounts of changes to the game, including rebalancing nearly 75% of the characters in the game. This giant undertaking, contrary to angering fans, has left them even more enraptured with the game. As Matthew "Cyborgmatt" Bailey explains to Gamespot:
"These big patches allow for the meta to remain constantly fresh and helps separate the teams in terms of how well they can react to the changes...It is one of the reasons why Dota is so loved."