According to Valve, “During a two year beta, Dota 2 grew to be the largest active community on Steam ever, with an monthly user base over 3 million users, and peak concurrent users of over 300,000. The feedback from these users has put Dota 2 in position to welcome everyone to come play, as we move from beta to launch.”
In order to play, gamers have to go to the Steam page and click “Get DOTA 2”, which will put the player on a launch queue. When the player is able to download, an email will be sent with a position to download from. This is supposed to ”smooth out the traditional launch spike.”
Once a player finally gets into DOTA2, they’ll be forced to play a tutorial, after which they can either play solo with bots, or have a co-op game against bots with friends, before wading out into the treacherous waters of actual PvP.
Check out Valve’s “The Beta Is Over” FAQ here.
