So much about Dota 2 sounds very...up in the air. There's no announced business plan, the release date has publicly fluctuated between before the end of the year and sometime in 2012 and Valve showed the game off for the first time with a public tournament at this year's Gamescom.
It only makes sense there'd be another twist. You'll like this one, though.
Dota 2 designer and one of the original minds behind Dota, Icefrog, broke down the upcoming plans for Dota 2 in a blog post.
The "plan" was to spend the next year or so in beta, ironing out the game's kinks with the community, with an official release later.
"We’ve also seen that the folks who are already in the beta are chomping at the bit to show everyone else some of the fun games they’ve had," said Icefrog. "So we decided our original plan was dumb."
Instead, Dota 2 will become available to everyone soon. There will be a "hopefully short" invite-only period, but the idea's to give the world access to the in-development Dota 2. Updates will come regularly, and players will see it evolve in real-time.
I'm pretty sure I just heard Brad's head explode.
"There’ll be no restrictions on what players can do with it," he said. "They can release screenshots, make movies, shoutcast matches, write guides, publicly make fun of our HUD, or anything else their hearts desire."
The version that initially rolls out will feature the set of heroes featured in The International tournament from last month, but more heroes will be rolled out as development continues.
It's an unorthodox way of doing things, but this is Valve we're talking about. God bless 'em for it.
If you haven't signed up for an invite yet, make sure to do so.