IceFrog Hints of Dota’s Future with Valve
Posted by drew on October 7th, 2009 | Visited 6853 times, 13 so far todayIceFrog recently announced a teamup with big gaming company Valve, the creator of such games as Counterstrike and Half-life. What this partnership entails is still unclear, but IceFrog promises to reveal more details soon. In the meantime I suspect more far reaching implications. IceFrog had already detached himself from Dota-Allstars.com and setup his own PlayDota.com portal, which is now considered the official Dota-Allstars website. I think it’s natural for IceFrog to scout for big companies to support his efforts in taking the game further.
Take a look at IceFrog’s statement:
I have some really awesome news I’d like to share with you guys. I am now leading a team at Valve! I finally have all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love. I look forward to revealing more specific details when the time is right.
My goal and top priority in the future is to solve the surrounding issues that affect the DotA experience in order to allow it to reach new heights. Addressing these issues will enable us to further enjoy aspects of DotA such as the gameplay, mechanics, and in-game feel that currently work well and ought to be maintained. As I’ve said many times in the past and especially after today’s developments, I am very excited about DotA’s future!
With regards to the 6.64 patch, the focus will be primarily on more balance improvements. It is moving along very smoothly and I expect to have it ready soon. Once those refinements are done, I’ll be working on some fun new content such as heroes or remakes for the 6.65 version. If there are specific things, big or small, you want me to consider for patches that follow, let me know.
Now, as we all know (or if you don’t), Valve is the company behind Steam, a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform. Steam facilitates the distribution and sale of games through the Internet with over 20 million users and 800 different titles available. Four key components might play importantly in this partnership. One is Steamwork’s multiplayer lobby feature, a lobby system where players agree on game settings before joining a server, something we have yet to see in Dota. Another is a matchmaking system that automatically groups players based on a criteria. Steam’s social network, aptly called The Steam Community, is a place where players interact with each other, see player stats and history of gameplay. Lastly, Steam Cloud enables Steam users to store game settings and saves on a central server. Really, really exciting stuff here, but then again, all of this is pure speculation by me.
It may be a few weeks to a few months before we learn what IceFrog’s really up to. Whatever it is, I hope it will be awesome enough to give the community a much needed boost and fire up the game for years to come.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:40 am
+1 to Icefrog for this move. This is going to make DotA big, but will Blizzard take anything negative out of Froggy’s move?
October 7th, 2009 at 3:09 am
So will they move to another platform? or will it still be a wc3 costum map ?
October 7th, 2009 at 3:56 am
hi longtime reader, first time poster here
all very well for the frog but i was wondering what sort of implication this has for Mac players.
by going to steam and valve (which is Windows only) the frog stands ready to alienate a (somewhat) large portion of dota player. I myself use a mac and i only started playing Dota because Blizzard games are useable across multiple OS’s
just thought i would bring that up
October 7th, 2009 at 4:22 am
+1 on icefrog i totally agree with this ^^ i myself play on steam .. and was thinking if it would be a good idea to allow them to set up a dota server/s on steam, it would really increase the dota community by farr.
October 7th, 2009 at 5:08 am
OMG Dota FPS! Titles like Left 4 Dead: Scourge Infestation or something xD
October 7th, 2009 at 5:51 am
1) Counterstrike is not a game, rather a mod like DOTA
2) Counterstrike was not developed, rather by Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess “Cliffe” Cliffe who were later employed by Valve after seeing the success of CS
3) Why would Icefrog, who separated from DA/Pendragon citing reasons that he wanted DOTA to be free to play, join Valve which is the authority on making people pay to play now?
October 7th, 2009 at 5:52 am
I meant CS was not developed by Valve
October 7th, 2009 at 6:24 am
the match making system sucks… how if we’re team up-ed with noobs ? with leavers ? aw >__<
October 7th, 2009 at 6:31 am
@Varun: Nitpicky are you? Counterstrike started as a game and a mod, as Dota is. Counterstrike is now sold as a separate game by Valve, therefore Valve is its creator and developer. But that’s not to say it didn’t originate from Gooseman and Cliffe.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Wonder if we’ll have to start paying for it…
October 7th, 2009 at 8:08 am
I agree with varun on most parts, i hope dota is still free in the future
And i think future dota will be more like wow coz of valve’s specialty: fps. Anyway n1 froggy
October 7th, 2009 at 8:37 am
@Drew: Ya I was in a nit-picky mood! Forget CS for now, do you actually believe Valve will allow DOTA licensed without a STEAM interface?
October 7th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Steam requiers a licence….so the new dota will requier us to get this licence?…
I gues that the frog is tired of not getting some $ for dota :)…
October 7th, 2009 at 10:28 am
[quote]The new Orange Box v2.0:
Half-Life2 ep3
Portal 2
Left4Dead 2
DotA 7.0 on source engine[/quote]
Can you imagine if that really came true? holy crap
October 7th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
1. I don’t think playing DotA will require $. As Icefrog already left DA.com because of $ controversy. He could’ve always money by putting advertisements in PlayDota.com which he never did. Point is $ IS NOT ICEFROG’S THING.
2. I would be a lot of work making DotA over Steam Engine. However, if Icy wants to improve the game, the ‘team’ he’s leading has a lot of work to do.
3. Why everything is unclear? This is because neither Icefrog nor Valve have released much information. But this collaboration type of thingy sure will cast Doom over LoL and HoN… they are copying DotA, there can’t be much innovation in that.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
It will be kinda weird without the WC3 interface, if they do decide to separate dota from Blizzard.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Rain brought up a really good point, The frog is going to alienate all the MAC players as steam is windows only.
And Counter strike was originally Sierra who later moved to Valve.
@Drew All sounds like some new exciting news, i may be doing a swap from hon back to dota if this is whats going to happen.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
you say that the move to steam is good… HAVE YOU EVER FUCKING USED STEAM. STEAM is the WORST application on the entire internet. Us CS and DoD’ers are forced to use that shit b.c its the only way. Do i want to use Steam to play dota? ID RATHER STICK MY FUCKING FACE IN A BLENDER AND HIT FRAPPE THEN HAVE TO USE STEAM FOR ANOTHER GAME>…… Valve is the shittiest company out there. They will ruin dota. At least blizzard just gtfo and doesn’t interfere. Valve made HL and then decided they wanted to make people pay for mods they didnt even make. They have done nothing. They made one average game and then ripped people off and blasted steam in your fucking face if you wanted to use CS or any of that stuff. IceFrog is just looking for help on his project, and i cant blame him. Dota has become almost TOO big for a fucking War3 custom map… but moving to VALVE?!?!??!ONE TWO ELEVEN SEVENHUNDERED!>O *)(#R&!?!? If they fuck up dota its over….. i take that back. WHEN they fuck up dota, its over,….
October 7th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Froggy gets a lot of money letting e-sports use his map as a betting game…
cmon…u need a license to make a super huge tournament…not to mention…international…
October 8th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
You can expect to start paying for DotA/updates. Valve stopped fulfulling promises and giving out free stuff/updates. (see: Boycot Left 4 Dead 2 in steam community).
October 9th, 2009 at 3:28 am
1.) DOTA WITHOUT BLIZZARD? how will that look like? maybe it will be awesome in graphics but how about the gameplay? we’re all used to it being a warcraft custom map.
2.) CHARACTERS: without blizzard…. 95 characters to animate. doubt if they look the same but it would be great if it had better graphics.
3.) DOTA: NOT IN WARCRAFT. have to buy a cd or pay to download. we lose $ either way. DOTA is supposed to be free, if not, the gamer population would get lower by 40% or something…… although….i hope we can download it free in internet.
4.) all these things will make the new dota take a year or two to be finished so……
PLAY NOW WHILE ITS FREE
October 9th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
some of you are fucking cry babies…. I laugh at you guys crying over a few measly dollars to play a whole new/revamped game. freaking WC III came out 7 years ago! I think it’s time to revamp everything and make dota it’s own game! Steam is amazing because of it’s ease of use, if you are bitching about it you probably have the mental capacity of a 3yr old.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
@dex:I honostly wouldn’t mind paying a few dollars for a fully revamped game that’s 100% dota but going together with steam?? If you want ease of use for a game server Garena has been serving a few hundred thousand people for years. Correct me if i’m wrong.
In addition to what other people have said, steam would cut down the player % by a huge amount even if it dosen’t become pay to play due to the fact that there’s a lot of people who play using Mac
October 10th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
i just hope its free,otherwise dota population will surely drop
October 11th, 2009 at 12:31 am
I agree on the part that steam does infact suck…
i wud much rather logging in to garena and wait even for 15 minutes to get into a room than to open steam….
and if icefrog isnt interested in the $ why did he approach valve?
Or did valve approach him?
either way…dota is fine the way it is…we’re all too used to the warcraft gameplay now…
October 12th, 2009 at 7:09 am
@vakma
yes steam requires a login.. but you can create a login for free.
There are severl games available on steam that are free, so maybe the frog will be able to convince Valve that Dota will attract more gamers as a free steam product.
i know there are many ways that one can use the steam client to play “windows only” games on a mac (i myself use “Crossover Games” and “VMWare Fusion” to play TF2 and Guildwars on my Mac) its just that setting up these “loopholes” can take time and effort and in the end.. an inferior playing experience is had.
It doesn’t really matter though what the frog does because in the end there will always be a group of hardcore fanatics (myself included) that will always want to play Dota on WC3TFT despite its dodgy-ness.
just thought i would update what i have already said
October 12th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
@Sagemsux
Even though we’re too used to the War3 interface you should try to be a little more openminded about it. Compare going with what we’re used to to having a completely new dota with much better graphics. I’d much rather have the better graphics. In addition, try not to judge Icefrog’s actions until it becomes clear what he intends to do unless you actually know what he’s doing with steam in the first place -.- . For now let’s just pray it stays free 2 play and play it while it’s free xD
October 13th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Icefrog said “I am now leading a team at Valve”. That means he’s working to earn $$$ and that he’s Leading a Team of developers working on a new Software(game), from which Icefrog could get new ideas with the game he’s into developing and incorporate these ideas to Dota.
Don’t jump to conclusions OK. Icefrog won’t leave dota players in WC3 hanging. I just hope that if Icefrog decides to stop updating Dota, he should leave the development to another disciple/person or a Team.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Lots of new game titles popping in the DBG genre.
Good bye free mod?