As expected, Valve has just announced Dota 2 – that's capital D, lower-cased ota – its "massive sequel for one of the most played games in the world." There aren't many details in the short press release found after the break, save for its platforms -- Mac and PC -- and its release window of 2011.
The title, which eschews the original's acronymic camel-casing ("DotA"), also avoids any mention of the actual original game's title, which is "Defense of the Ancients." Earlier this year, Valve filed a trademark application for the DotA trademark which led one of the game's original creators, Steve "Pendragon" Mescon -- now working on DotA-esque League of Legends at Riot Games -- to tell Joystiq that he was "surprised that [Valve has] decided to try to trademark the DotA name, because it goes against what [he] and others believe DotA means to the community."
Riot Games even counter-filed for the DotA trademark, pledging "to protect the work that [original DotA creator] Eul, Guinsoo and dozens of other modders have done to create the game," adding, "if we were to obtain the trademark, we would keep the game and the DotA name freely available to the mod community."