The two companies will create their separate MOBA experiences

May 12, 2012 07:16 GMT  ·  By

Video game developer Valve and Blizzard have announced that they have reached a mutual agreement over the future use of the DOTA name, designed to limit the potential for conflict between the two companies.

Valve will still use the DOTA name on a commercial basis for its own games, while Blizzard will rename its titles that are set in the same genre to Blizzard All-Stars.

Rob Pardo, who is the executive vice president of game design at Blizzard stated, “Both Blizzard and Valve recognize that, at the end of the day, players just want to be able to play the games they’re looking forward to, so we’re happy to come to an agreement that helps both of us stay focused on that. As part of this agreement, we’re going to be changing the name of Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars, which ultimately better reflects the design of our game. We look forward to going into more detail on that at a later date.”

Gabe Newell, the president and a co-founder of Valve, added, “We’re pleased that we could come to an agreement with Blizzard without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one. We both want to focus on the things our fans care about, creating and shipping great games for our communities.”

Defense of the Ancients is a mod and map created by modders for Warcraft III and both developers are creating titles based on the set of mechanics it has pioneered.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trial and Appeal Board was notified by Blizzard about Valve’s right to use the DOTA name.

Neither Blizzard nor Valve plan to offer more details on their agreement.

Dota 2 from Blizzard will be launched before the end of the year and was first played in 2011 by the community, while Blizzard All-Stars might be introduced alongside Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.