Official Blizzard DOTA Announced

Warcraft meets StarCraft meets DOTA.


Blizzard has finally unveiled its upcoming StarCraft II map: Blizzard DOTA. As the name suggests, the mod is a Defense of the Ancients-style RTS game, where famous Blizzard characters from StarCraft and World of Warcraft battle it out in arena combat. The game doesn't take itself too seriously, with the trailer describing Blizzard DOTA as "an endless battle with no purpose other than ladder points". Sounds like every multiplayer game ever made!

According to StarCraft II level designer Matt Gotcher, the game is "kind of like Super Smash Bros. or Marvel vs. Capcom", in the way players get to choose from a bunch of legendary Blizzard heroes:

"For Blizzard DOTA, we wanted your hero to be someone really special. So we were just sitting around, and we were like: 'wouldn't it be cool, if you could actually play as an iconic Blizzard character, like Zeratul, and square off with the Blademaster. Or, who wouldn't love a fight between Kerrigan and Sylvanas."

Check out this official trailer for more character reveals:

[video=Blizzard DOTA Trailer]3219[/video]
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PC Gamer is also reporting Blizzard DOTA may be (somewhat) free-to-play, quoting Blizzard as saying there will be "a way to play Blizzard DOTA for free, possibly by including it as part of the StarCraft II: Starter Edition."

As the trailer above indicates, the game will be released "soon(ish)".

 

I have no clue, all they say is soonish, but not before 2012 for sure.