Neslyn A. March 7, 2019
The development team behind Heroes of Newerth is releasing the game’s final major update.
Patch 4.7.3 will be the last significant contribution to the MOBA, which was once among the most popular titles in competitive gaming.
The game’s remaining community was deeply saddened to see the news, even if it came as little surprise.
Heroes of Newerth, also known as HoN, is a multiplayer online battle arena developed by S2 Games and released in 2010. Garena acquired the game in 2015 and its development was then passed on to developer Frostburn Studios. Members of the S2 Games staff who were involved in the HoN’s development were then transferred to the new studio.
HoN was initially a serious competitor to popular MOBA games such as League of Legends and Dota 2. The game was well-received by players and managed to build a solid and dedicated following. However, the title struggled to build on its initial player base and to gain a greater viewing audience.
HoN’s esports scene also lagged behind that of its competitors. In 2015, HoN had its highest tournament prize pool $236,185.14 USD. Even this peak lagged behind League of Legends’s more than $2 million and Dota 2’s more than $18 million prize pools at the biggest events of that year for each respective game.
Nick "BreakyCPK" Caras opened an AMA thread on Reddit where he discussed his seven years of involvement in the Heroes of Newerth scene. The Dota 2 commentator previously worked for S2 Games before he pursued freelance esports casting.
The game will still remain playable, but the recent announcement indicates that the game’s time is coming to an end.
“Future HoN patches will generally consist of a small amount of balance changes and/or bugfixes, if they are deemed necessary,” Frostburn Studios said.
The full patch note can be found here.