League of Legends and Dota 2the kings who rule the gaming world MOBAonce had a rival named Heroes of Newerth. After a long decline in players, on June 20, the game that was once considered a challenge to Valve and Riot Games was officially closed.
Heroes of Newerth was developed by studio S2 and released its first beta in 2009. Initially, this game had the potential to dominate the growing MOBA genre. The first Beta of League of Legends was also released in 2009, while Dota 2 is scheduled for public testing a year later. In the early days of the MOBA game series, Heroes of Newerth still had a chance to compete with major studios.
However, the sharp images and more tightly designed mechanisms in products from both Valve and Riot Games have quickly pulled players away from the game. HoN and the smaller S2 studio struggled to compete with rival updates. In 2011, Heroes of Newerth became free-to-play and S2 sold it to publisher Garena in 2015.
Studio S2 released a new MOBA called Strife, but continued difficulties forced S2 itself to close, leading to Strife’s disappearance in 2018. Development of Heroes of Newerth continued through via Frostburn Studios and the game started receiving more frequent updates.
However, by this time, the influence of League of Legends and Dota 2 on the MOBA genre had been firmly established. In an official announcement in December 2021, Frostburn confirmed that Heroes of Newerth would be discontinued. In the Facebook post, the developer expressed: “Even though HoN’s journey has ended, we believe that all the precious memories of players throughout the years will never disappear.”
