IceFrog has made his second contribution to the Dota 2 development blog, with the announcement that Valve Corporation will be scrapping its release model and instead, push for the soonest possible release. This new plan contradicts what the game's lead designer had previously laid out, which had looked to keeping the product in its beta phase until it had incorporated all the heroes from Defense of the Ancients. Due to a great amount of feedback, which has expressed a mixture of longing and envious resentment, Valve has taken this into consideration and labelled their method as "dumb".

This move may widely considered unexpected and unprecedented from Valve, as the company has a fierce reputation and informally-spoken policy of releasing a game that is "done when it is done". For the near future, the beta will continue through invites only and eventually, turn to an open stage before release. One specific change in policy that IceFrog specifically pointed out is the player-produced media for the game. Containing the integrity of the game's non-disclosure has struggled and failed recently. To accommodate this, Valve has removed the non-disclosure agreement, allowing for testers to produce as much media as possible.

Dota 2 has a tentative release date of early 2012. The influence of this new policy will likely move said release to a closer date.

Source: Dota 2 Blog