Dota 2 Finally Out Of Beta, Valve Will Bring Game Online In Batches

Dota 2 has been in the beta stages for what seems like a century now. Yesterday Valve confirmed that Dota 2, its longest in development free to play multiplayer game, is now out of beta and can be downloaded by Steam users worldwide. That said there is a catch. The new game will be phased-in in a load of batches to ensure the server infrastructures don’t crumble under intense load.

Dota 2 has been in closed beta since late 2011 but has managed to rack up 3 million players thanks to the ability for each player to invite friends to join the game. Apparently for Chinese and South Korean users Perfect World and Nexon, respectively, will regulate access into Dota 2 but for everyone else Valve’s Steam software is in control.

The game will have a queue and users who download the game will be entered into that queue. Email confirmation will be sent out when your time in the queue is up and you finally get to play. This queuing system will not last forever but will be used to regulate the launch as to prevent any catastrophic server failures or overloads.

“Our thinking is that we want the existing audience to have uninterrupted access during the launch, in addition to bringing new players into Dota 2 in a way that isn’t frustrating. Simply put, we want to smooth out the traditional launch spike, but at the same time allow anyone to come in and try out Dota 2…Dota 2’s user base is already larger than any game we’ve ever made, and it continues to grow. Knowing this launch moment was coming, we’ve spent the past year working on getting both the backend infrastructure and new user experience into a state where we can welcome in anyone that wants to give the game a try. With that work now complete, it is time for us to invite anyone and everyone to come play.” said Valve in its announcement.

Image courtesy of Valve