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Dota 2Dota 2 developer Valve surprised fans today when it shared many details about the future of the game, including info about the next heroes and more updates.
An Update to Dota Plus and Guilds. https://t.co/GH8GhBxk24
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) October 15, 2020
Dota 2 Heroes and Updates
In the blog post on the Dota 2 site, Valve gave a tentative release date for the next few heroes. In fact, the company stated that the next hero will see a release at the end of November. This is similar to the normal release date of heroes around The International. Unfortunately, this marks over one year without a new hero announcement.
Even better news from the new Dota 2 hero release date was the statement after that. Multiple heroes may enter Dota 2 throughout 2020. Specifically, a new hero will enter the field in the first quarter next year. Before the end of March 2020, Valve expects to release at least two new Dota 2 heroes.
“First is with regards to new heroes.” Valve said. “We know the community tends to expect new heroes in the fall each year (usually released around November sometime). We are currently aiming for end of November for a new hero release, followed by more that are spread throughout next year with the next one in the first quarter next year. Recently we’ve been thinking about trying an overall development approach of spreading out updates during the year, rather than only having most content and updates centered around The International. We are hoping a steady state of content will prove to be more engaging to users than the previous approaches.”
The last two heroes, Snapfire and Void Spirit, saw announcements in September at a live TI9 event. Soon after, Valve revealed a big Dota 2 matchmaking update. As part of the Dota 2 Outlanders patch, these new heroes and the slew of updates reshaped gameplay. But it’s always uncertain when Valve plans to make these updates and announcements. Today, the company says it will change.
Image credit to Valve.
Valve Communicates
The developer also plans to improve in-game player toxicity and behavior. An option similar to toxicity regulation in Overwatch and CS:GO will be implemented in Dota 2. A new method to tackle smurfs is also going into place. When the system identifies a smurf, it makes it much more likely to match them against other smurfs.
This is because Valve realizes that they’d like to change communication frequency. Usually keeping everything revolving around The International, it’s time the company improved. Now, Valve hopes to spread content and major updates throughout the year instead of just at TI. This will help create long term improvements in player retention too since there’s content at any time, not just in the Fall season.
With the success of Riot Games’ VALORANT nearly taking the spot of CS:GO, especially in the esports scene, Valve knew it needed to step up. By making a big move like promising better communication and more updates, the Dota 2 community will rejoice for new content.
Written by Justin Amin
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