Valve is trying to save the internet by soft launching Dota 2

Dota 2 is finally launching. Valve’s take on the eSport competitive MOBA genre is officially out of beta. If you’re one of the few people that wanted to play Dota 2 during the beta but somehow didn’t get an invite or wanted to wait for the full game, then your wait is over. There is a catch, however. Valve, in their almighty wisdom, has chosen to make the game available in waves to preserve bandwidth and keep the servers from being overloaded.

Like we mentioned before, the launch of Dota 2 is going to take on a different shape than products we’ve shipped in the past. Our thinking is that we want the existing audience to have uninterrupted access during the launch, in addition to bringing new players into Dota 2 in a way that isn’t frustrating. Simply put, we want to smooth out the traditional launch spike, but at the same time allow anyone to come in and try out Dota 2.

New players will be added in batches in the order of the sign-up queue, according to Valve. Even as a beta, Dota 2 has the largest user base of any game Valve has released.