Home Dota 2

Dota 2 Q&A

quad damage
Offline / Send Message
littleclaude quad damage
Dota 2 Q&A

I love Dota 2 but I am confused by Dota 2’s freemium business model?

Can someone explain to me how Valve make a profit from this game or is there another reason for its creation?

For example maybe valve started Dota 2 and hosts the international to get Steam installed on PCs around Asia which had a very low rate of people using steam previously.

Is it just for the love of making a fantastic mmorpg game?

Is the profit just from the international?

I'm a huge fan of the style of Dawn of the Ancients so thank you Valve and forgive me for my ignorance, I have been nose down in study books for a few months now but I am interested in your freemium business model....Happy for anyone to have a wild guess at answering this.

Replies

  • Jalcober
    Offline / Send Message
    Jalcober polycounter lvl 10
    Valve makes a profit by selling cosmetic items for heroes on the Dota store. http://www.dota2.com/store/
  • littleclaude
    Offline / Send Message
    littleclaude quad damage
    I would love to know the sales figures for Valve from the store :)
  • Jalcober
    Offline / Send Message
    Jalcober polycounter lvl 10
    From my calculations, my most recent set probably sold around 9100 units. Because valve takes a 75% cut they made about $47775. Probably not the most accurate numbers but it should be close enough.
  • MdK
    Offline / Send Message
    MdK polycounter lvl 9
    Without trying to be rude, I'm confused as to how you ended up on this forum without knowing that already to be totally honest.

    But yes, most of their profits will come from cosmetics, keys and couriers. It is generally how most free to play game to work. LoL has a very similar model, as does Team Fortress 2.

    Considering how popular Dota 2 is, I think they would also make a large amount through ticket sales for The International and other events. Essentially, it is a really viable business model which holds a lot of benefits for the developers and consumers. It can be somewhat of a risk however, as if the game hadn't become as popular as it did, then all the money spent to develop the game would have been basically wasted.

    I wouldn't call this a "freemium" as generally that is when you are paying to get extra gameplay features or the full experience of a game that is otherwise free. Another name is "pay to win" many mobile phone games like Clash of Clans will fall under this category, as players can pay to get ahead in the game. This is not the case with Dota 2, as anything you buy is purely cosmetic and will not give you any gameplay advantages.

    Dota 2 is known as a "MOBA" or "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena" rather than a "MMORPG" or "Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game" which is generally something like World of Warcraft.

    Looks like I got carried away....
  • littleclaude
    Offline / Send Message
    littleclaude quad damage
    Not rude at all, thanks for your input and enlightening me on the terminology.

    Just out of interest how do you know "most of their profits will come from cosmetics" and not from getting a better foot hold in Asia through greater distribution of Steam by making a game like Dota 2 which to me looks very well suited for the Asian market, particularly in Korea and China.

    Would you know if there are any stats on downloads in different countries, sales figures from the Valve store, success stories on people making DLC for DOTA 2.
  • Sukotto
    Offline / Send Message
    Sukotto polycounter lvl 8
    Valve doesn't release sales figures because they don't want to or need to. At all. So its hard to tell where the money from Dota comes from.

    As for success stories, this whole forum is full of people who make a living strictly by making Dota cosmetics.
  • mrpresident
    Offline / Send Message
    mrpresident polycounter lvl 10
    Not rude at all, thanks for your input and enlightening me on the terminology.

    Just out of interest how do you know "most of their profits will come from cosmetics" and not from getting a better foot hold in Asia through greater distribution of Steam by making a game like Dota 2 which to me looks very well suited for the Asian market, particularly in Korea and China.

    Would you know if there are any stats on downloads in different countries, sales figures from the Valve store, success stories on people making DLC for DOTA 2.

    While that would be the most obvious way for Valve to make money, since I would guess Dota 2 makes pennies in comparison to what they get from game sales from Steam, last I heard in order to play Dota 2 in both China and Korea you need to go through some local provider's software, instead of Steam. I'm not living in China or Korea though so I'm not 100% sure how it works, except I do know that workshop creators get the same % of sales regardless of which country the sale came from.

    As far as success stories, there are plenty, many people on this board including myself are making what I would call better than average living wages from the workshop. It is risky though, there's no guarantee you'll get paid for anything.
  • littleclaude
    Offline / Send Message
    littleclaude quad damage
    Thanks for you input guys! very interesting

    And 'Mrpresident' One day when I have finished my research project in the next couple of months could I interview you for a magazine article, or anyone else that would be happy to do so 'please PM me'

    I think it would make great informative reading and a little self promotion for you at the same time.
  • mrpresident
    Offline / Send Message
    mrpresident polycounter lvl 10
    Sure, you can PM me whenever. Or messaging me on steam might be more reliable: http://steamcommunity.com/id/mrpresident_
Sign In or Register to comment.