Dota 2 is ditching battle passes for more regular, year-round updates
Inspired by the success of its most recent patch
Dota 2 is moving away from releasing new content via a pattle pass in favour of more varied and regular updates. Valve explained the change on the Dota 2 blog, saying that the heavy focus on the Compendium - the Battle Pass released alongside Dota 2's yearly esports event, The International - was leaving "the rest of the year feeling barren by comparison."
Last year, Valve say they began to wonder if a "single focal point around which all content delivery was designed" was the best thing for Dota 2, and decided to instead put their resources towards "more speculative updates, including features and content that couldn't fit into a Battle Pass." That led, in April, to the release of the New Frontiers update for Dota 2, which made sweeping changes to its map, added new minibosses, re-balanced a lot of spells, and much more. These changes - which Matt thought made Dota 2 worth revisiting - "couldn't have shipped as they did if we were focusing all our efforts on producing Battle Pass content," according to Valve.
The update has apparently been successful enough that Valve are confident this is a better way to continue updating their hugely successful MOBA.
"Most Dota players never buy a Battle Pass and never get any rewards from it. Every Dota player has gotten to explore the new map, play with the new items, and accidentally die to a Tormentor; every Dota player benefits from UI improvements and new client features," says the blog post. "Community response to New Frontiers has helped us build confidence that working less on cosmetic content for the Battle Pass and more on a variety of exciting updates is the right long-term path for Dota as both a game and a community."
Valve say that there will still be an update to coincide with The International this September and that sales of it will contribute to the competition's prize pool, as the Compendium used to. The update won't be a battle pass, however, and cosmetics won't play a notable part. Instead, cosmetics will be released "over the year" alongside "more diverse updates."
The blog post also notes that Dota 2 is ten years old this year and that they're working on some "fun stuff" for the anniversary, although it won't be ready in time for July 9th.