Yesterday we reported on a pretty juicy rumour that Valve was hard at work with DotA developer Ice Frog on a new DOTA game.
Today, they have pretty much ousted themselves by filing to trademark the term “DOTA”. Yes apparently they can do that. Thanks Superannuation.
The rumours began when DotA developer Ice Frog joined Valve last year and was put in charge of a team. Since then, gradual whisperings began to emerge, but this is probably the most concrete piece of evidence so far, and if it does not confirm the rumour, then nothing will, short of an official announcement.
The juiciest information is still to come however. Will Valve try to charge for their new DotA? How will it differ from the original free to play mod? Will it get a visual overhaul? My bet is that Ice Frog and his team are hard at work revamping the game, and rebuilding it within its own engine, as well as building adding community functionality to bring it up to speed with HoN.
When it is ready, Valve would be smart to release it to Steam users for free, similar to what they did with Alien Swarm. If Valve can successfully migrate the majority of the DotA playing community onto Steam, then they will have a lot more people using their service, and importantly, perusing their storefront on a regular basis.
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