When will Valve finally give us DOTA2 items instead of TF2 items as pre-order bonuses on Steam. I am kinda longing for my Sniper Portal-gun.

soon(tm)

The big hurdle to doing this was that Dota 2 was not free to everyone.

Although I'd love freebie bonus items in TF2 and Dota 2, if I had to split them up I would like the FPS bonuses to go to TF2 while the fantasy/rpg stuff go Dota 2.

@extomar: You mean the early access? I bet the final version will be F2P.

Of course it will be free to play.
That's what they've been saying all along

@wuddel: The game will be free. It'll be officially out soon. And you can bet your bottom dollar that Dota items will be pre-order bonuses after release. When that will happen is anyone's guess since Valve loves to take their sweet time on things.

I think they were doing TF2 bonuses before TF2 was F2P. At the very least I'm sure a decent chunk of the TF2 playerbase that likes those pre-order stuffs paid for TF2.

As someone who hasn't bought anything for DOTA 2 and kinda don't want to, that would be a nice way to get some costume stuff.

Imagine all the great and dumb couriers that we could get from this.

Yes but before "now", not everyone could play a game of Dota 2 to see the pre-order bonus. It is worthless to many to create a "Free Drow Ranger Bow with pre-purchase of Thief 4" if they can not see the Drow Ranger use it.

I think if they do end up doing it, they'll be a lot more conservative about it than they were with TF2; they've even removed items from the Dota 2 store that they felt didn't fit with the art style. I realize they said that when they started the TF2 cosmetic stuff too, but that was long before Valve decided to make TF2 their guinea pig and implement every new weird idea they had in it. I think they recognize that the Dota community and the Valve community are certainly not 1:1 and they aren't going to go nearly as crazy/off-the-wall with 'out of place' stuff in Dota as they have with their other games.

I also think that, if anything, it'll be couriers/wards/HUDs and not things for specific heroes.

I also think they won't put portal guns and the likes in games, but at the other hand you can get creative and make it work.
For Rome total war it wouldn't be out of the question to do a roman themed uniform for Legion commander.
Not that Rome total war will have dota items, but in a of occasions i think there might be some leeway, and with some adjustment there might be one of the over a 100 heroes on which it might fit.

But too obvious/clashing stuff will almost certainly not make it is. Time will tell.

Never, they said they won't be putting cosmetics the don't fit into the world. Best they can do in that case is a HUD or announcer, unless they will give a generic item that won't relate to the game you preordered.

I don't believe Saint's Row 4 would fit into Dota 2 but I mentioned Thief 4 because it could aligns far more closely especially given the number of agi/assassin heroes along with Garrett's signature weapons is a bow which many heroes also use.

But that is all speculation. I would be completely behind only HUD and other other decorations for pre-order bonuses but I would feel there could be something fun about borrowing weapons from other games. As a side note, I also do support a game setting to suppress these things too.

Just to make my point clearer, the last set that didn't fit the tone of the game was removed after a few hours after the community got really angry. It is now worth more than $1,000 Valve won't let it happen again.

@connerthekewlkid: Wheatley courier. Someone! Make that happen!