MOBAs are far and away the most popular game genre on the planet right now. From League of Legends, the free-to-play juggernaut that kickstarted the revolution, to DOTA 2, Valve’s sequel to the original mod that created the genre, there are tons of games for players to pick from. What’s more is that, unlike a lot of other genres out there, typically once someone picks their MOBA of choice, they seldom play others. That’s typically due to not just loyalty, but also from the sheer necessity to memorize and learn every aspect of a game to really become the best. And millions of dollars are often at stake.
While it may be a little while before games like DOTA 2 fully support VR integration in the traditional sense, it looks like Valve has been cooking up a very special VR Spectator Mode for their flagship MOBA experience as you can see teased in the video above.
According to the footage you can watch above, it looks like this will be used primarily for eSports competition viewing, at least judging from the commentator audio. Steam already has a built-in broadcasting function that lets you stream games either publicly or just to friends, as a way to try and hedge against the mammoth of live broadcasting that is Twitch, but it hasn’t gained a lot of traction. By adding VR integration with a slew of other stats and features, watching DOTA 2 in VR on Steam instead of on Twitch just got a lot more appealing.
At the end of the video teaser, you can even see different stats that pop up on-screen in addition to a large, sprawling physical representation of the game’s map. This provides an almost “war room” type feeling to spectator mode, making you feel more immersed in the experience as opposed to just a floating camera. Hopefully we see additional features, such as social integration, in the coming weeks.
UploadVR has reached out to Valve for a comment and additional detail about this new feature and we will update this story with more information when possible.
