Valve is hoping to make up for its Artifact stumble (no joke, I had to Google the name of that game, and I played it!) with Dota Underlords, which is already getting a lot more buzz and has actual support to boot.
Born out of the recent Auto Chess wars, Dota Underlords is the official Auto Battler of Valve, and uses the Dota name as well as its universe. It was previously available in Early Access form with various major updates adding in extra characters and functionality, but come February 25, it'll launch for real.
Valve is planning a full day of Underlords streaming, and although there is a soft reset for ranked play, players will keep their "Major Rank" for standard, duos and knockout play. Five new boards (read: aesthetic battlegrounds that serve as the main source of microtransactions for these games) will be tied to the season/battle pass, and more titles will be granted to beta players.
Along with this full launch and the Steam edition, Valve is also simultaneously porting the game to Android and iOS devices to keep up with the rest of its competition; which is highly targeting mobile players who tend to spend a lot on cosmetics.
Season One is Nigh [Steam]
