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Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm hits closed beta in January

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A picture of a team composition screen from Heroes of the Storm. The player's character is shown towards the front of the screen, and icons of the other players are paired off to the right and left, behind the main character's avatar.

The early training mode in Heroes of the Storm matches you up with A.I. teammates.

Image Credit: Jeff Grubb/GamesBeat

Heroes of the Storm is another step closer to an actual release.

Developer Blizzard announced during the opening remarks for its annual BlizzCon event today that its multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is going to enter closed beta testing on Jan. 13.

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MOBAs are a huge business right now. League of Legends is the most played game on PC, and it’s generated close to $946 million this year already.  Valve’s Dota 2 is a distant second in terms of revenue at $136 million. But other MOBAs have had a hard time competing. Developer EA just closed Dawngate, its League of Legends competitor.

Heroes of the Storm entered a technical alpha test back in March. It’s common for games like these to have long testing periods. MOBAs are highly competitive and complex, so it takes a lot of effort to make everything balanced, fair, and working.

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