Valve considers official involvement with Dota Auto Chess

Olivia Richman Published 23/02/2019

The success of Dota Auto Chess has gained Valve’s attention.

The developer has begun contemplating making the successful Dota 2 mod into an official Valve title. Valve is currently brainstorming how it can offer support and development to Drodo Studio.

Dota Auto Chess has been gaining popularity at an exponential rate. The game currently has more than 4.4 million subscribers, 400,000 of those gained in just four days. Esports pros from a variety of titles have flocked to the turn-based tactical strategy game, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Bektiyar “fitch” Bahytov, who admitted he plays Dota Auto Chess between games of CS:GO.

The overnight success of Dota Auto Chess has led Drodo Studios to contemplate hiring more staff, including a marketing team. Currently they are a team of four located in China. Drodo Studios has also been in contact with Valve to discuss a possible matchmaking system implementation.

Dota Auto Chess has eight players face off in round after round of resource management action. Competitors begin by picking a single unit from the five initially made available. The real excitement begins as players’ population cap and unit choices grow, and players must begin to comprise their lineups through a mix of races and classes to achieve various boosts, abilities, and advantages.

Placing in the top three of a match will win the participant some candy, which is used to unlock cosmetic items. The ranking system is based on chess pieces, and players win games with the goal of becoming the ranked king.

Drodo Studios was created in 2015, with their first game being GemTD. The company first reached out to Valve in hopes of selling shells and candies in Dota 2 for that game, but did not receive a response. But with the popularity of Dota Auto Chess, it seems as though Valve has had a change of heart about working with the small Chinese team.

After the severe underperformance Valve’s previous in-house Dota 2 project, Artifact, it’s no surprise that the company would have its eye on a more potentially lucrative proposition.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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