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Dota 2 is about to turn ten years old. How does Valve choose to celebrate the milestone? They opted for violence. Well, not really. Valve is set to celebrate ten years of Dota 2 with "some fun stuff." This "fun stuff" won't be available until sometime after July 9th, the date that Dota 2 officially turns ten.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Valve's latest Dota 2 blog is the fact that they are ditching the Battle Pass. The company says this decision came about after noticing certain trends in previous years and then conducting a little experiment earlier this year to see if their assumptions were correct.
Last year, we started to ask ourselves whether Dota was well-served by having this single focal point around which all content delivery was designed. Each step we had taken made sense when considered independently: any single piece of content would be more valuable when bundled as part of the Battle Pass, so we bundled more and more. This led to a momentous content drop every year, but it also greatly limited our ability to do things that were exciting and valuable for players but didn't fit into the Battle Pass reward line.
When we recognized this, we made a deliberate choice earlier this year to run an experiment: to take some of the resources that would normally produce Battle Pass content and instead put them towards more speculative updates, including features and content that couldn't fit into a Battle Pass. While work is still in progress on future updates, the first of these has shipped: New Frontiers and patch 7.33 couldn't have shipped as they did if we were focusing all our efforts on producing Battle Pass content.​
When we recognized this, we made a deliberate choice earlier this year to run an experiment: to take some of the resources that would normally produce Battle Pass content and instead put them towards more speculative updates, including features and content that couldn't fit into a Battle Pass. While work is still in progress on future updates, the first of these has shipped: New Frontiers and patch 7.33 couldn't have shipped as they did if we were focusing all our efforts on producing Battle Pass content.​
So, just like that, the Dota Battle Pass is no more. The development time that previously went into the Battle Pass is now going towards more frequent updates throughout the year. Valve says that they will still plan to ship a range of cosmetics over the year while also shipping more diverse updates for all Dota players to enjoy.
There is just one problem: The International (TI).
In prior years, The International's prize pool was bolstered by sales of the Battle Pass. Without the Battle Pass, the question then becomes: How will the community contribute towards the prize pool? Is the era of The International having the largest prize pool in all of gaming finally coming to an end? I mean, maybe?
Valve says that they are "still huge fans of TI" and that they're "excited for this year's event." They say that work is underway on a TI-themed update that they plan to ship in September. This update will "contribute directly to the prize pool." The difference in this update is the fact that new cosmetic items will not be a major focus. The main focus of the update will be on the event itself, The International, a focus on the players, and a focus on the games. Valve wants this update to shift the gaze onto the event itself and less on some shiny new hat, so to speak.
We're excited for the future of Dota and for what these changes allow us to do. We're already working on the next updates, and a host of new cosmetic items — and we've already started conversations with venues for TI 2024. By freeing Dota's update and content cycle from the timing and structural constraints of the Battle Pass, we can go back to making content in the way we know best: by coming up with fun ideas of all scales and shapes, and exploring them with you.
