DOTA 2 to be a "new kind" of free-to-play

Valve will pursue its experiment with the free-to-play games model with a new plan to release its upcoming game DOTA 2 for free, the company’s managing director has said.

Gabe Newell claimed Valve is not applying a wholly conventional freemium model for the online action strategy game.Usually, freemium games are made available to everyone and later monetised by selling optional in-game items.

But in an upcoming interview withSeven Day Cooldown, Newell said the game would be free-to-play [but] it’ll have some twists”.

"The issue that we’re struggling with quite a bit is something I’ve kind of talked about before, which is how do you properly value people’s contributions to a community?” he said, reflecting on a discussion he had with Develop last year.

Develop has the full story.