Valve Corporation isn't wasting any time in releasing a battle pass for their latest early access game, Dota Underlords. The game is Valve's take on the wildly popular emerging autobattler genre, which itself originated as user-created content in Valve's own Dota 2.
For those unfamiliar with autobattlers, they are a multiplayer competitive style of game that combines drafting heroes similar to the ones found in MOBAs like Dota 2 or League of Legends with light resource management and positioning mechanics. Play happens in two phases: a first phase where players first buy and manage a roster of heroes, followed by a second in which heroes are positioned on a chessboard where an automatic battle takes place. This process repeats as players face-off, earning the money needed to buy heroes by winning matches, or in some cases, for going on a losing streak.
The Dota Underlords official website and the Steam News Blog revealed the new battle pass on July 12. The new pass, titled The Prototype Pass, will contain cosmetic rewards for Dota Underlords that unlock as players level up. The rewards include re-skins for game boards, new emotes, banner upgrades, player portrait upgrades, and various upgrades to in-game effects for winning matches.
Valve has a history with using revenue from battle passes to fund the prize pool The International - the biggest Dota 2 tournament in the world. That pool has consistently passed $20 million. Players of Dota 2 will recognize the style and much of the flavor of the Dota Underlords Prototype Pass, so it seems Valve has adopted an 'if it isn't broke, don't fix it' approach to their latest game.
The story of the autobattler craze is similar to both the rise of the Battle Royale and MOBA genres, with a clear progression from mods to fully-fledged game. In the case of MOBAs, beginning with the Dota mod for Warcraft 3 then evolving to League of Legends, Dota 2, and Heroes of the Storm. Battle Royales began as mods to games such as H1Z1 and ARMA, then developed into hit games like PlayerUnknown's: Battlegrounds, Fortnite: Battle Royale, and Apex Legends.
The key difference with autobattlers is the shocking speed of this progression. MOBAs and Battle Royales took years to transition from mod to game. Dota Auto Chess became popular just months ago and already Valve has Dota Underlords, Riot has Team Fight Tactics, Tencent has Chess Rush, and original mod creators Drodo Studio have Auto Chess.
Are autobattlers somehow easier to make than Battle Royales and MOBAs? Or is there something unique about this moment in the gaming industry that allows for faster development cycles?