14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Valve has said that it is not thinking about a business model for Dota 2, its upcoming Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game, and is currently focusing on making the game acceptable to long term fans of the genre.
Speaking to Gamasutra about Dota 2 Gabe Newell, who is the co-founder of Valve, has stated, “The primary focus for us at this point is not worrying about monetization, and it's instead worrying about getting the game right. So we started with a group of IceFrog's testers that he's worked with for all the different versions, and sort of got it to a point where we'd stopped making them crazy with all of the dumb things that we had done.”
He added, “The International is sort of the next step of that process. It's like, this is a very tough audience; there are a bunch of clear technology pieces and server pieces we have to get done. And the phase after that is, there's going to be an invitation beta, and then after that there's going to be an open beta.”
Newell says that the monetization options that the company did don't influence the actual design of the game in any way.
The video game developer also referred to the practice of early monetization as being the “root of all evil”.
A number of analysts and fans have speculated that Dota 2 will be the first free-to-play title that Valve creates, allowing gamers to get access to the experience without paying anything at first, which will lead to a bigger audience than other business models.
The Valve made Dota 2 game will face tough competition from the already well established League of Legends, a game that is set to get a significant expansion soon.
It will also compete with the Blizzard made DOTA mod that will allow next summer alongside the Heart of the Swarm expansion for Starcraft II.