$3.99

Valve is testing the waters with a $3.99 monthly subscription service toDota 2, which is priced low enough where any dedicated, daily player will probably bother to buy into it. It’s called “Dota Plus,” and will take over the previous Battle Pass, providing players with a shard currency, as well as new tiers of badges, chat wheel responses, and rewards.

One controversial aspect is the “Plus Assistant,” which uses aggregate data to tell players what to do. This extends to both item building and general strategy, which to some people means pay-to-win. After a great free launch that provided every player with the full roster, Valve has been slowly adding in more microtransactions that are mostly cosmetic in nature — though this one may be taking it too far.

Article image

We’ll be monitoring the rollout of the assistant and testing it ourselves to see how it goes — but as it stands, this is something that should be available in beginner and AI games only.

Wuyang OW2 ultimate

Football Manager 26 promo art

Cover for Max Payne

Black Ops 7 key art work

PEAK mesa biome text

Article image

CoD BO7 The Guild robot

Drag x Drive passing

A ruined police station in Raccoon City in Resident Evil Requiem.