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Blizzard prepping new free-to-play game?

Develop source says company has unannounced freemium game on its hands, but official word points to Blizzard DOTA.

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Source: UK gaming news site Develop reports Blizzard Entertainment is working on a new, unannounced free-to-play game.

What we heard: One reason cited as why Blizzard's World of Warcraft has been shedding subscribers at a steady clip in the last few months is the proliferation of high-quality free-to-play games. Now, if a report from Develop is to be believed, Blizzard is taking the join-them tack with an as-yet-unannounced project.

According to Develop's sources, the game company plans to implement a free-to-play, microtransaction-supported business model into an upcoming project. Develop then suggests that this project could be Blizzard's upcoming massively multiplayer online Project Titan, details for which remain largely under wraps.

Blizzard DOTA will be free-to-play, OK?
Blizzard DOTA will be free-to-play, OK?

The key word in Develop's report is "unannounced," mostly because Blizzard actually has an announced free-to-play project on its hands. At last year's BlizzCon, the company revealed the rebooted Blizzard DOTA, confirming that the title will join many other multiplayer online battle arena games by using a microtransaction-based business model.

So is this what Develop's source was talking about?

The official story: Probably. A Blizzard representative responded to GameSpot's request for comment on the matter with a set of links all pointing to the free-to-play plans for Blizzard DOTA.

Bogus or not bogus: Blizzard's response allows for a bit of wiggle room, but this one's looking bogus.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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alexispitt

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Waiting for some new and interesting games.

<< LINK REMOVED >>

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suyang456

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www.ksgamer.com is a good site that sell cheap and safe wow gold .highly recommend to you

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max-hit

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best developers ever.

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Barrakas21

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just put wow f2p with all the money they milked out of wow why the hell you dont update those crappy grafics?most greedy companie ever i hope they bankrupt

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Unholy123

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Ah Pay to win remember just cause the other guy paid and gets massive perks and advantages its a level playing field you could have that all for free... and 400+ hours of your life.

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Quandry

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F2p gaming that creates a giant distinction between the haves and have nots.

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Upat3am

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Paytowin!!!!!

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jannamadden

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this one is really hot! << LINK REMOVED >>

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GH05T-666

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This rumor is NOT bogus!

Blizzard DOTA will run through Starcraft 2 as a custom game like it did in Warcraft 3 with the original DOTA. Blizzard have announced that it is coming out soon on the news wall when you log in to your battle.net account on Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2.

No word exactly when it will come out but it should be late this year or early next year.

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Legrieme

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Get the truth of Gaming before it's gone.

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Booshon

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@me4656 Ofc SWTOR is like WOW and wow is like EQ and so on if it wont be the same its wouldnt be a mmo. Like rpg or fps are the same. You should read the hitory of mmo then talk .

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supertom221

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Free-To-Play === Pay-to-Enjoy.

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xXFr34k_0uTXx

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Heh, I'm not complaining. Bring on these F2P games.

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superjenius

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In general, I don't care for F2P games, but I have to say after playing a little League of Legends, this genre is F2P done right. In LoL, you can earn new champions by playing in game, or if you want to save some time, you can buy the champions or a package of them outright. The main thing that you can't earn in-game is skins. Absolutely not necessary to spend money to play the game, but if you've put in the time and are pretty good with a champion, why not spend a couple of bucks to make it look more bad-ass? It's a good business model for gamers and developers.

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abcdefgabcdefgz

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These new business models are ruining gaming. F2P means you pay money to get basic features most games would give you for free or your pay more then you would have for the subscription.

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Albaficas

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gix47 why should they do WoW f2p ? it has like 10mil sub...its huge profit

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gix47

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WoW F2P after Mop and diablo 3 is pretty much a F2P and you know they will make you pay for DOTA nothing is free with blizzard..or cheep, look at the blizz store. its making its way to a F2P model.

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crossdudu

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If Blizzard made WoW F2P with microtransactions i think they would earn a lot more money with it. Imagine a lot of cool pets and mounts and a skin system, which you can appear to have a badass armor using no items at all. And that is only a few things they can do that won't harm gameplay, they could do a lot more.

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edubb85

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Pretty funny how many game companies are so closely ripping off the idea that 1 or a couple of people had while making the original DOTA using the Warcraft 3 map editor. A game dev as big as blizzard should be able to create something totally new. All these companies are just straight up copy/pasting the DOTA formula but with different heroes. Not nessesary, create something new and PVP oriented with many unique characters and skills. Games like that are alot of FUN and there are not enough of them.

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gostrider373

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WoW ftp is what the audience is waiting to hear!

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me4656

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@Shango4 How ironic that someone that writes like you says that I have a problem with writing.

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Albaficas

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juliano001 u realize wow has more subs in asia than eu/NA right??? half and even more are from there and most of them are RMT

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Albaficas

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i hope that f2p they talking about is not project titan..... enough of these f2p crappy games...

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megakick

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LOL why? The microtransaction in most MMO you don't need to spend money unless... A> You want to save time, POTS, XP Bonus and Etc. B> You want vanity loot. One or the other you don't want both. WoW does both and its' not cool.

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Shango4

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@me4656 probly you have a problem writing things that no was gives a crap about it

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Darkreaper_1

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Would love to hear Blizzards definition of "Free". I bet it's pretty much like their definition of "Soon".

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Mawy_Golomb

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Why not just offer both the microtransactions model and the subscription one? Give players the ability to switch between the two whenever, thereby making it a lot more flexible for everybody. That way, if you see your subscription model doing worse, you still have possible money to earn back with the "F2P" one. And people won't be as sick and tired of being forced to go under one of the models.

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monson21502

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country of war craft

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me4656

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@Shango4 Having some trouble reading do we? Because if you wouldn't you could've clearly seen from my comment that I dislike wow.

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juliano001

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Blizzard will make a real fortune in China with the next expansion. Pandas are the most loved and preserved bear of the country. It appears in coins, magazines, everything you can imagine. Guys Blizzard is not aiming usa or western mythology this time. The asia pacific is the new frontier for Blizz. Get used to it. China has almost two billion people. If they get 35 million players, you can say goodbye to Blizzard. They are moving to Beijing asap. Funny to think of that. As a Brazilian i grew up playing usa games, listening to usa movies, songs and so on. It appears its the time to usa get used to chinese culture. Wow. The world really moves fast and foward.

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Evenios

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Blizzard needs to get their act together and come out with Diablo III already and the next World of Warcraft addon. If you ask me they should have just forgot about Diablo 3 and Starcraft and focused only on World of Warcraft right now because it seems to me they are spreading themselves too thin.

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Shango4

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@me456 Have fun being a panda fat ass

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AceCometh

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This won't affect their World of Warcraft business. While it seems to be taking the whole arena fighting aspect of WoW to a whole new level, it could never replace or hinder the marketing and selling of the world's #1 MMORPG. Star Wars: the Old Republic isn't hurting them either. There have been players jumping from WoW to SWtOR but not enough to worry Blizzard. And the Mists of Pandaria expansion will help solidify their position by drawing back in a lot of players who have lost interest after finishing the Cataclysm expansion. SWtOR isn't a bad game, it's just nothing new.

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me4656

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@Shango4 Yes, I'm pretty sure people know that swtor is oput but what is your point? That it's killing wow? You're delusional if you think that. Sadly wow has been sitting on it's throne as the western mmorpg king for years now, I'd like that to change and soon but swtor is not the one to get that throne. Swtor is wow with lightsabers and more voice acting, that's all.

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RaiKageRyu

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Of course Blizzard DOTA is free. It's just a custom map.

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FkThisName

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Blizzard and free to play, very unlikely. Look at the greed machine at work with Diablo III.

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nurse_tsunami

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I wouldn't be surprised to see WoW go the F2P route in a year or so. WoW is far from dead, but it did such wonders for the bank accounts of other MMOs that went that route, Blizz will no doubt want in on that cash grab.

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Shango4

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You do know swtor is already out just give up

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Anteares

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screw microtransactions. All of those games are crappy clones of each other anyways. I'd rather pay a cheaper subscription for all of the content than pay for microtransactions. The reason why people are leaving WoW is because your devs are jerkoffs, the populace are jerk offs, and the game has basically turned into a big instance grind for gear.

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Sgthombre

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Want me to get excited for something, Blizzard? Ether create and entirely new sequel for Wow or Warcraft IV. Otherwise, you're getting not a dime outta me.

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Ballen04

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Why don't they just admit the only reason they're doing a F2P is because of League of Legends?

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MatrixKing

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In my experience "F2P" games will usually cost alot of XP to unlock everything. Grinding for XP won't be fun anymore, And it'll also cost alot to unlock through real money; expect to spend anywhere from 2x-4x more than a standard AAA $60 game with similar quality content. IMO, F2P is another way to overprice the value of a game. F2P works when real money only buys cosmetic items, and doesn't give players quicker advantage on the battlefield.

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NINEINCH-Tool

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Blizzard has too much money, are their progressions going to be strictly in the financial regard?? There's room for the polished touch of blizzard in the game scene....now how bout they make an actual original title instead of this cash-raking.

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FatmanAB

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i want dota 2 not blizzard toad

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megakick

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Blizzard Dota looks good and its not a clone, DoTa Blizzard is changing it up a bit more so then DOTA 2 is. DotA is boring even Blizzard knows that, LOL is gettin tons more press ad PR then DotA and DOTA 2. DotA is like play Quake. Lets' party like its 1996!

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Richardthe3rd

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@Albaficas The difference between LoL and DoTA2 is that while LoL has been trying to get itself taken seriously in the competitive community, DoTA2 is already being taken seriously before it's even been released. If you want to play a more balanced and competitive game, DoTA2 will be the gold standard. LoL is casual fun, DoTA2 is more rewarding to decent players.

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ChaosUndivided

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They should do a Starcraft Warcraft crossover. Might & Magic Vs Technology & Science. A Terran & Protoss fleet fleeing from the Zerg run in to a anomaly in space and are launch back in time and appear above Azeroth during the 2nd War creating a new timeline. Has to be a RTS

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killa32130

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@wyan_ @polterdice League of Legends is free 2 play and its Great. The microtrans actions don't give an in-game advantage, you either are paying for new skins for your guys, earn bonus IP (money) or buying characters which are available to F2P anyway.

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wyan_

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free-to-play *shudders*

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polterdice

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calling microtransaction games "free-to-play" is like calling prostitutes "free-to-f@#&"

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