Dota 2 says good bye to sign-ups, game now open to everyone

For a long time, Dota 2 has been free-to-play, but until now, the game has still been a limited-access deal that you can’t just fire up Steam and play. But now, anyone and everyone is welcome to download the Steam client, install Dota 2, and get into the game.

To give a little bit of background, Dota 2 used to be accessible only to those who received invites or those who have obtained or purchased beta keys. However, after Valve stopped giving out invites and beta keys, it limited access to Dota 2 by requiring new players to sign up for a queue that granted players access to the game over time. This system was implemented in order to prevent a sudden increase in players, which could cause server and connection problems for existing players. This way, Valve was able to gradually increase the player base and improve its system. According to its recent announcement:

We’ve used this system to gradually increase the size of our playerbase, as we ramped up our infrastructure and improved the experience for new players. As we have recently completed a set of server management upgrades as well as released a huge number of enhancements to the new user experience, we’re going to remove all restrictions to playing Dota 2.

Dota 2 has consistently been the most-played game on Steam and currently has 6.5 million concurrent users and is expected to grow now that the queuing system and sign up restriction has been lifted.

To play Dota 2, you can head over to the Dota 2 Steam page and click green ‘Play Game’ button just below the game trailer. It will prompt you to open the Steam client or install it if you don’t have one. Remember that you also need to register for a Steam account if you don’t already have one. For more information, head over to the official Dota 2 blog.