Heroes of Newerth makes all heroes free for everyone

Heroes of Newerth is looking to set itself appart from the crowded MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre. For those unfamiliar with the genre, it's a term coined by Riot Games, developer of League of Legends. The goal in this type of game is for one of the two opposing teams to destroy the other's base, but you have to run up three different lanes and destroy some defense towers first. The logic is simple but it is a genre that's easy to get into but hard to master.


Last Year, Heroes of Newerth went free-to-play in order to compete with Riot Games' hugely popular League of Legends. But now Valve is putting out it's own MOBA game DotA 2, sequel to the original DotA, the game that started the genre. In order to stay competitive, S2 Games, developer of Heroes of Newerth, is making all of its heroes free-to-own as of July 20^th.

The goal of this move is to attract more players to the game and also , "level the eSports playing field, as all players will be able to build their skills and advance their strategies with any hero they choose," according to director Pi Liu.
 
Those who purchased a hero on and after July 5^th will be issued a refund. Those who have spent money previously on the game will receive a free Mecha Gemini avatar, a move which surely will not sit well with many players who dropped money in the past, in order to be able to play all heroes in the game.

With hero purchasing gone, it will be interesting to see if S2 Games will be able to continue running and maintaining the game simply from income coming from the selling of vanity items such as alternative skins, announcer packs and couriers.