DotA 2 Will Most Likely Be Free To Play Game

Valve's Doug Lombardi confirmed that studio is currently developing their first free to play game.

[Harelgur]

Thats cool.. but it will probably have a store in it :(

[Pandamobile]

No really? How do you expect a F2P game to make money?

[Fayulah]

Microtransactions can make alot more money then regular model. If game becomes popular as competetive title, license for tournaments will cost alot. There are many more ways.

[soundslike]

People like to hate on f2p, but I don't think they've ever actually seen a good f2p system if so.

30-50$ on another dota game that I may or may not like?

No thanks. As long as they don't sell "+100 phys dmg for 72 hours" it'll be fine.

[despair]

@soundslike

Most likely they will give a base number of characters and charge for the additional ones, that to me is what will ruin the game.

I for one would rather spend $30-$40 for a complete game with patches and maybe some free add ons than play free with 10 characters and have to purchase the better ones if I want to use them, not to mention the items and maybe even some other things. It should be like every other retail game we buy, one price.

Free to play is just "more I spend the better things I get and more powerful I become" type of game, always was and its not how I want my games as it just sucks the fun when a person's wallet not skill determines if they excel at a game.

[captain-obvious]

NO
dont make it free to play
im ready to play for it
but NO FREE TO PLAY BS
ppl buying advantage = BS

if i want that i'll go play LoL which sucks compared to DoTA

[ATiElite]

sell hats for $2.99 a piece.

Sounds familiar doesn't it? (Team Fortress 2)

[wallis]

I would much rather PAY for half life 3/ ep 3.

As great as valve as are the taste in my mouth about the wait over episode 3 is getting increasingly bitter. Faith can only carry me so far and the more and more games that valve release which AREN'T half life the more and more that faith wears down.

I'm sure half life 3 will rock when it happens but something about the idea that every God damned valve fan in existence is literally screaming at the top of their lungs for half life 3, but valve only ever seem to hear "left 4 dead 2", or "Dota2", just seems to say that a gap has arisen between the famous devs and their fanbase.

Look, they can do whatever they want, I'm sure they will, but people are invested in half life now. They have been for a long time. Just cut us some slack and give us the closure because if a film took four fucking years to end I'd punch the director in the face if I ever saw him.

[Fayulah]

Well I would still buy dota since its one of really good games either to chill or as an e-sport competetive title. Anyway, can't wait for HL3 or EP3 also ;)

[tdrules]

HATS EVERYWHERE.

I can't wait for the LoL guys to cry out when VALVe copies their price model regarding skins, glyphs, champions etc

[nightmarex121]

Sweet that be awesome, but i was going to buy it anywayz, dota has a freaking huge fan base, and people definite would have bought this b/c just look at hon many have bought that game.

[Spazz]

For those of you that don't understand how a microtransaction works in a MOBA style game please refer to League of Legends.

What they sell are skins for your character. You don't need them to play, you can just play with the default skins on. They don't give you any advantage at all.

Also there are 2 ways to unlock characters. You can play the free ones of that week to earn you in-game spending points (which works kinda slow) or you can purchase with real money a different in-game cash to unlock characters.

Other benefits are in-game XP boosters to level you faster to unlock more Rune slots with give a very minimal bonus to specific status and unlock masteries faster. In LoL you have 30 levels, 30 rune slots, 30 mastery points. So basically after one month of play unless you purchase the xp boost everyone is on the same playing field.

You cannot purchase Runes or special Masteries with microtransactions so no advantage is earned. The LoL Micro-transactions are the most legit F2P system I have encountered to date. If Valve follows Riots lead on this system and brings a good selection of characters and abilities to the table they will become quite successful in this venture.

Also I spend an average of the monthly cost of an MMO on Microtransactions on League of Legends because I do like to purchase different skins for my favorite characters. Many other people do too. Riot sold a Nurse Akali skin for basically under $5.00 USD for 2 weeks and sent the proceeds to the Red Cross to aid Japan. They donated over $200,000.00 from just one skin for 2 weeks.

LoL has over 65 characters with the option of 3 to 7 skins per character with millions of players that are willing to spend a few dollars on a couple of skins for their favorite characters. Just think about it. Riot Games is making a killing and so can Valve with DOTA2!

[nightmarex121]

Well there are some flaws to it, every new hero they bring out is op, not op in it ruin the game but op that they are strong as hell and you have to wait for a nerf on next patch, b/c name a hero that was new and under power,you can't really b/c they know if they bring out not so strong heros no body will buy them, so that's why they nerf them later on. I think icefrog wants to make a super balance games though.

And valve already did that thing with hats with teamfortress, and valve raise $300,000 worth of hats to donate for japan.

[BeastlyRig]

cool!

[HOSe]

free to play counter strike 2 please.

[ATiElite]

yeh with hats selling from $1.99 to $29.99 Valve will make a ton of cash just they do in Team Fortress 2.

just release it already so you guys can get back to all hands working on HL2 ep3.