Dota 2 back out of beta again, first game to go live with Source 2 engine

It's no secret that Dota 2 is the greatest game in the world. The Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (or Action Real Time Strategy game, as developer Valve would have us call it) first came out of beta in 2013 after a couple of years of testing.

That version of the game was built on Source, Valve's venerable 3D engine that powers essentially all of Valve's games: Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2 and its various episodes, Portal and its sequel, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead and its sequel, Alien Swarm, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Since its release, Dota 2 has grown, and just last month Valve's major competition, The International, was played for a record-breaking prize pool of more than $18 million.

The new Reborn interface.

But earlier this year, Dota 2 went back in to beta. Dota 2 Reborn, as it was then styled, was an all new version of the same game, this time built on a new engine: Source 2. The new engine is more capable—it will include support for new 3D APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan—with better content creation tools for mod editors. While the core game remained the same, Reborn also included a completely overhauled interface, new tutorials, and laid the groundwork for much richer game spectating.