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Valve’s new ‘Dota 2’ subscription adds an in-game coach
Dota 2 is a completely free-to-play game, with all the MOBA's heroes available to new players from day one. Valve makes money by selling different in-game cosmetics, announcers, HUDs, etc. When major tournaments roll around, the house that GabeN built also puts out time-limited "Battle Passes" that add challenges, co-operative game types, fantasy leagues and other things that encourage your participation in exchange for special effects and the latest hero skins. That's how it's worked in the past, but this year Valve is trying a more consistent approach to monetization with the new Dota Plus subscription.
Third-person MOBA 'Gigantic' to close on July 31st
Gigantic's long and troubled development cycle is finally over. The colorful, hero-based MOBA will be shut down on July 31st, developer Motiga announced in a blog post yesterday. Ultimately, the game "did not resonate" with as many players as the studio had hoped, limiting the viability of future updates and support. As a result, the January Update — which contains new hero T-Mat, various skins and computer-controlled bloomer creatures — will be "the final content update." Microtransactions have been switched off, making all heroes free to unlock, and store items will be heavily discounted for anyone who has leftover cash to spend.
Epic is shuttering ‘Paragon’ following success of 'Fortnite'
Last week, an Epic Games representative explained Paragon's uncertain future on the game's subreddit, which worried fans -- especially as it confirmed that developers had been siphoned off to assist with the massively successful Fortnite. It turns out those apocalyptic concerns were correct: Paragon is getting shut down on April 26th. To make up for it, every player, on all platforms, can apply for a refund.
China's most popular game is about to launch in the US
You might not have even heard of Arena of Valor (outside of a Twitch tourney), but it's all-consuming in its native China, with 200 million registered players and over 80 million daily active users. Tencent's mobile-only MOBA game, known as Honor of Kings in its original form, is so popular in its homeland that tournaments are everywhere and the game has time limits to prevent kids from playing too long. And now, Tencent wants it to become a household name in the rest of the world. In a confirmation of some earlier rumors, the tech giant is formally launching Arena of Valor worldwide on December 19th, with users in North and South America getting their first crack at the Android and iOS hit.
'Dota 2' and 'League of Legends' players might be smarter than you
People who play multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA) like Dota 2 and League of Legends perform better on problem solving and logic tests than those who play shooters Destiny and Battlefield 3, researchers found. "The specific MOBA genre is remarkable in the sense that it already engages a vast number of players across the globe, but more generally, complex, socially-interactive and intellectually demanding video games are now ubiquitous and generate a constant stream of performance data that can be normalized against millions of other players," a team from the University of York in the UK concludes.
'Dota 2' Dueling Fates update includes extensive gameplay changes
Dota 2 is set to receive some major gameplay changes, according to Valve's newly released Dueling Fates patch notes. The update will arrive on 1st November, bringing with it the new characters teased at Valve's International esports tournament in August. They now have names: Donté Panlin, the Pangolier, is a swashbuckling melee hero with the ability to fully negate armor, while Dark Willow Mireska Sunbreeze is a ranged fairy with magical powers that can stun and inflict fear.
Play spot the difference with ASUS' ROG Strix gaming laptops
Gamers are a broad and diverse community, and treating them all as the single customer with a single set of needs isn't smart. That's why ASUS is trying to break the one-size-fits-all mold with its ROG Strix edition laptops, which it initially showed off earlier this year. The two devices, the Scar and Hero editions, are designed to cater specifically to both FPS and MOBA players, respectively.
ASUS' new ROG Strix gaming laptop is built for FPS players
ASUS' IFA welcome mat is scattered with laptops, and it's not just more slender ZenBooks. The company's gaming arm, ROG, has recast its Strix gaming laptop in two different editions, each dedicated to a different type of game. First up, the SCAR edition, which was built for first-person shooter gamers "looking for a competitive edge". That edge involves the newest eighth-generation Intel Core i7 processors, and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 10 in the way of graphical might. You'll be staring into either a 15-inch or 17-inch screen, with a 5ms response time and smooth 120Hz refresh rates. ROG says this will eliminate motion blur, while also contradicting itself and teasing an even smoother 144Hz, 7ms display option also in the works.
'Dota 2' won't be so intimidating to newcomers
For many rookies in Dota 2 and other multiplayer online battle arena games, the biggest obstacle isn't the game itself -- sometimes, it's the community. There are certainly helpful players, but MOBAs are notorious for jaded players who are hostile to anyone who isn't already a grizzled veteran. Valve wants to fix that. It's delivering a Dota 2 update that matches newcomers with players with reliably high behavior scores, reducing the chances that someone will berate you while you're still learning the ropes. There's no guarantee they'll be forgiving, but it's better than risking a stream of profanity just because you haven't spent 200 hours mastering your hero.
Brexit is even making 'League of Legends' champions pricier
As if the prices of tech hardware shooting up as a result of last summer's Brexit vote wasn't disappointing enough, now it's making the cost of entirely virtual items more taxing on the wallet. League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced that from July 26th, it's adjusting the UK prices of Riot Points (RP) -- which players use to unlock champions and buy skins/other in-game swag -- to compensate for the decline in the value of the pound.
Valve is taking control of the competitive ‘Dota 2’ scene
Next month, Valve will host The International 7 at Seattle's KeyArena. The annual Dota 2 tournament is all but set to break the record for prize pools in eSports for the fourth year running, with over $20 million in the kitty to date. But GabeN & Co is already looking past the headline championships to the next competitive season. While Dota 2 tournaments happen all the time, there are only three "official" Valve events: two "Majors" and The International. Next season, though, the house that Steam built will embrace the wider competitive community in a big way, sponsoring third-party tournaments and creating a new ranking system that will define how 2018's International plays out.
Valve releases the first multiplayer campaign for 'Dota 2'
Dota 2 isn't just an ever-repeating, five-on-five race to destroy your enemy's base. Every so often, Valve adds temporary cooperative game modes to the MOBA that unite the toxic player base against an entirely different end goal. In the build-up to The International 7 -- a yearly tournament that's like the Wimbledon of Dota -- Valve has just released the most elaborate of these yet. It goes so far as to call "Siltbreaker: Act I" the first multiplayer Dota campaign, since it plays more like a quest-centric RPG than anything else. Unlike the core MOBA, though, it's not free-to-play.
'Heroes of the Storm' adds everyone's favorite 'Overwatch' hero
Last month, Blizzard announced it would revamp its MOBA game, Heroes of the Storm, in a huge patch released in April. Its 2.0 update, which is live in North America, promised to upgrade its player progression system and added random-reward loot boxes, a staple of the free-to-play model. But the studio had a few other surprises to drop today, including adding a new hero to the nexus, Overwatch's teen mecha-piloting pop star, D.Va.
'League of Legends' creator wins $10 million in cheating lawsuit
If you've noticed fewer cheaters in your League of Legends matches in recent weeks, you now have a good idea as to why. Riot Games has won a settlement in its lawsuit against LeagueSharp, the subscription cheating service that offered automated play (that is, bots) to win in League games. The agreement has LeagueSharp paying $10 million, bans its software and gives Riot control over its websites. LeagueSharp technically shut down in January, but the terms of the settlement weren't circulating until now.
'League of Legends' is about to change and it's all your fault
League of Legends players should probably give up on the idea of a game editor. Riot Games lead designer Greg Street hates to slam the door on any particular idea, but he's fairly confident that players will never be allowed to mess around with the game's core mechanics. Riot simply doesn't want players to create 1,000 new versions of League of Legends in the hope that one new game mode might stick. "Philosophically, that's something we're really reluctant to do," Street says. This doesn't mean Riot is afraid of change. League of Legends patch 6.24 goes live on December 7th, and it should be game-changing enough to satiate fans hungry for something new. For example, the 2017 season update introduces a practice mode where players can try out tricky maneuvers over and over again, with the option to instantly reset cooldowns, test out new paths through the jungle, play around with infinite gold and lock champions at specific levels.
The OmniWear Arc is a haptic neckband for serious gamers
There's a lot to keep track of in a game like Counter-Strike. You need to know your location, where your teammates are, your ammo supply and most importantly -- where your enemies are. With all these sights and sounds coming at you, it's easy to miss something, which is why OmniWear is looking to offload some of that cognitive load to another sense: touch. The Arc neckband, launching on Kickstarter today, vibrates to let you know where your opponents lurk, ensuring you don't miss a thing.
'League of Legends' is adding post-game replays
Nailing a sweet pentakill in League of Legends is even better when you have an easy-to-share video of it for bragging rights. But what if you don't want to resort to third-party tools to watch or create a clip? Well, according to developer Riot Games, you shouldn't have to wait much longer. Ahead of next season, Riot announced it's adding the highly-requested feature to the game, and replays from the current patch can be watched directly from the LoL client itself.
'League of Legends' fuels college rivalries with live broadcasts
You no longer have to head to a basketball or football game to see your favorite college sports rivalry play out. Yahoo eSports and Riot Games' uLoL are partnering on a series of five League of Legends live broadcasts that will pit players from major North American schools against each other once a week, starting November 4th at 6PM Eastern. You vote for your favorite rivalries among 12, ranging from Cal/Stanford to Harvard/Yale -- the top 5 go on to in-person competitions that Yahoo will stream online. There will even be viewing parties at each school if you'd rather watch with fellow students. While there's no certainty that these college MOBA match-ups will be as intense as the conventional kind, it's safe to say that there's a lot of pride on the line.
'League of Legends' will keep adding new champs for 'many years'
League of Legends studio Riot Games is 10 years old, and like a fifth-grader riding his first two-wheeler, it's just getting started. Riot announced this week that League of Legends boasts 103 million monthly active players, up from 67 million in 2015. Compare that with Dota 2, which had 13.5 million players in the past month, or Overwatch, which has a total player pool of about 15 million. League of Legends is a massive phenomenon, helping pave the way for eSports as it enters mainstream consciousness and partnering with universities to kick off the next generation of competitive gaming. The game itself is also huge. There are 132 champions in League of Legends, each with individual abilities, personalities, backstories, voice acting and costume choices, and Riot is constantly adding more. Just today, the company teased a new champion, bringing the revised total to 133. That number is going to keep growing for a long while, Lead Game Designer Greg Street tells Engadget.
PS Plus members get free early access to 'Paragon' on July 5th
In more Games That Aren't Overwatch news, Epic Studios is offering PlayStation Plus members a $20 Starter Pack for its hero brawler Paragon for free. That includes early access to the game over a month before the open beta launches on August 16.
