Strategy Informer  

While the Starcraft II mod of Defense of the Ancients will be free to play, Blizzard have said they will still be finding ways to monetize it.

According to Blizzard production director Chris Sigaty, "DOTA will be playable through Starter Edition as well and it's free to play" but "if you come in through the Starter Edition, there will definitely be some costs." What this entails though, they're not sure yet.

"We haven't really talked about exactly how (we will monetise Blizzard DOTA), we're still looking at that, but there will be some ways," Sigaty said.

"Certainly Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm will get some advantages to you in DOTA, as far as if and when we monetise it; they will give you some ins. We're still talking about how that will work."

Analysis: Team Fortress 2 has proved that purely cosmetic items (ie. hats) can rake in player cash, so this would probably be a safe option for Blizzard if the new items could be easily integrated into the game. Other options, like charging gamers for units they already own, or selling new 'advanced' units that would give paying players an advantage, might not go down too well.

Source: Eurogamer

Related games: StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty (PC), Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm (PC)