Has Valve Just Soft Launched the Source 2 Engine?

If reports are to be believed, Valve might have just launched the long-awaited Source 2 game engine along with Workshop Tools for Dota 2 yesterday. The information comes from a moderator on Reddit, who noticed the change after combing through game code.

The modder stated that: "Everything in this package is a new game. It's all the Dota assets and code ported over to Source 2. Guys. Valve just soft launched the entire Source 2 engine.

"Everything that would share a name with Source is named '2′. That's 'engine2.dll', 'vconsole2.exe', 'vphysics2.dll'. When you go to open a map in Hammer, it asks for .vmap files. One of the other options is '.vmf (Source 1.0)' files."

This new update has triggered a serious debate over whether Workshop is an example of the engine or if it just uses related technology.

The tools have relatively high system requirements, with the list including a 64-bit version of Windows and DirectX 11 compatible graphics card.

What did Valve have to say about this? "This is a developer focused release and currently has high system requirements". However, the company hasn't spoke about the update's relation to Source 2 and is not expected to do so any time soon.

Back in 2012, Valve's Gabe Newell confirmed that the company was working on a successor to the source engine and that the company was waiting for a new game to roll it out with.

Have something more to add to this story? Let us know in the comments below.