Kongor Studios is looking to bring an old-fashioned MOBA into modern times.
Heroes of Newerth (HoN) will be a familiar name for MOBA players, having peaked in popularity in the early 2010s after going free-to-play. Despite sharing the MOBA space with Dota 2 and League of Legends for years, however, interest in the game eventually waned so drastically that its servers were officially shut down in 2022.
In January 2025, however, Heroes of Newerth enthusiasts were surprised by some rather good news: Kongor Studios was developing a remake of the game entitled Heroes of Newerth Reborn. This remake would feature a visual overhaul, various gameplay improvements, and plenty of new content following its open beta release.
To learn more about how this remake came about, we talked to Nick "BreakyCPK" Caras, a former esports commentator who serves as Kongor Studios’ director of communications. He had much to say about the game’s live service content, its esports plans, and its long-term chances of survival in the competitive MOBA genre.
Note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What sparked development on a Heroes of Newerth revival?
In 2022, Heroes of Newerth all but perished. The MOBA, which had declined in popularity in the 12 years that had passed since its launch, publicly announced the shutdown of its servers in 2022. Many players had moved on, save a few who ran a community-hosted version of the game under the name Project Kongor.
During our interview, Caras noted: “It kind of showed that maybe this game isn't as dead as people suggested. There's definitely interest still there. People still want to play the game. So I would say that that was at least kind of a spark of inspiration.”
However, Caras was quick to note that he “personally wasn't involved in the ultimate decision to bring back Heroes of Newerth Reborn.” However, he did have a few tidbits to share about how the remake came about. “From what I know of it, the legal rights to use the licensing for Heroes of Newerth were gained from Garena to create this project about a couple of years ago now.”
There was also a “mindset that Heroes of Newerth still had a lot of life left in it, and there's a future there–not necessarily a different version, but a more evolved version, that we want to give a go ahead and try.”
Several people from the Heroes of Newerth community, including former developer S2 Games staff and several newcomers, came together to lead development on the remake, which Caras describes as “a passion project” that delivers “what we like to say is a five-year patch, because it has been four to five years since it's really gotten a significant patch.”
What happened to Heroes of Newerth’s missing playable characters?
Heroes of Newerth boasted a massive roster of 139 playable characters before its shutdown in 2022. By comparison, its revival Heroes of Newerth Reborn has roughly 80 heroes in open beta, with more to come eventually. Where did all those missing heroes go?
Caras explained: “It was decided early on in the project that we wanted to have a condensed hero pool, just simply for design purposes. And frankly, there are a lot of heroes that maybe weren't the best for the game. Understandably, like every MOBA goes through, heroes are continuously added. You need more content, and it's an easy thing to put in as content. Sure, there are some heroes that maybe stand out and deserve to be there. But let's be honest, there are also heroes that do feel out of place and maybe, you know, make the game a little more difficult to balance around.”
Hence, the team whittled the playable roster down to a slimmer band of fan favourites. While some older characters are still in the cards to join this revival, the team also has plans for all-new characters. “We are a new studio, and it is a new game. So, you know, there is that fine line and balance, I get it, but we definitely do have plans. And there is actually, I can say, one [new hero] in the works that we have been even testing recently internally, that is a brand-new, fresh new hero. So there will be a mix of popular old heroes returning, but there will also be some new heroes coming as well.”
The esports of it all: Is Heroes of Newerth primed for a competitive comeback?
When we asked Caras if Heroes of Newerth is being developed with a focus on future esports competition, he passionately told us: “Frankly, I don't know if I would be involved in the project if that wasn't going to be the case.”
He continued:
“The goal behind it is that we want to give an outlet for people to play our game in a competitive atmosphere, and truly compete for something, you know, for prize pools at all different levels. So, you know, I can't speak on necessarily, if it will be the same 100% philosophy, but we definitely have goals and ambitions for supporting the esports scene. And in fact, we recently announced a US$100,000 tournament, of course, as part of our marketing efforts to go into open beta here.”
Caras noted that no further details for the tournament could be provided just yet, only that the developer plans to “run that $100,000 tournament to kind of kick things off” in open beta.
What sets Heroes of Newerth Reborn apart from heavy hitters like Dota 2 and League of Legends?
And what of the game’s big competitors in the MOBA space, like Dota 2 and League of Legends? “At a realistic level, we understand that they're juggernauts,” Caras admitted. “They've been around forever. We're not here to be the dominant MOBA in the industry. We're here to fill a niche, if anything, and we accept that [...] we still feel that it's also going to be able to be more than successful enough, to stick around for another however many years that we got ahead of us.”
When asked about what sets the game apart from these other MOBAs, Caras says that it’s “very fast paced. I would say it's faster-paced. The lethality is higher, and you can feel impactful no matter what, whatever role you're playing, from the hard support all the way, of course, to the hard carry.”
Why is Heroes of Newerth Reborn not on Steam, and why is it on Juvio instead?
One frequent complaint among Heroes of Newerth veterans is that the remake has not found its way over to Steam just yet. The open beta is currently only available to download on a platform called Juvio, formerly known as iGames, describing itself as “an all-in-one gaming ecosystem empowering players and creators.”
Heroes of Newerth Reborn is labelled as Juvio’s “flagship product” on its website, which also claims to provide tools to allow users to make and publish custom maps, and proceed to make money off those maps. Users will get a majority of the revenue granted from these maps.
When we asked Caras if Heroes of Newerth Reborn is ever going to end up on Steam, he said: “The answer we continue to give on that is: never say never [...] we have our reasons for not being on Steam right now, and there is no immediate future that that will be the case.”
According to Caras, the game’s developers still remain confident that players are interested in the game despite not being on Steam, based on the activity they have seen thus far in the open beta.
“Juvio essentially was kind of hand in hand from the beginning, with the project,” the developer told us. “When it comes to the relationship with Juvio, what was decided really from the beginning, was that was always the case. They were going hand-in-hand together.”
What future updates can players expect in Heroes of Newerth Reborn?
Caras told us there are “about 15 to 20 people” working on Heroes of Newerth Reborn at the time of our interview, with a mixture of full-time and part-time employees. The full team is intent on building this MOBA up as a live service game, which means that players can expect plenty of updates to come even after its official launch. Updates are in the works for the game’s ongoing open beta, which will only scratch the tip of the iceberg, if Kongor Studios has its way.
Caras explained: “There are several things in terms of, like, game modes, which have been a popular request and a question that's been brought up by our community [...] We absolutely want to have more game modes, from like a turbo mode-esque game mode to unranked play, to Grim’s Crossing, et cetera, but stuff like that will likely come post-official launch.”
He also noted that he can’t speak to the “consistency” of these future content additions, but “there will be many, many updates to come, from design to balance to features being added, etc., over time.”
When is Heroes of Newerth Reborn getting a full release?
Heroes of Newerth Reborn is gearing up for a full launch later in early 2026, though Kongor Studios has yet to announce an official release date. “It's going to be Q1 2026, is what we're aiming for right now for official release,” Caras told us.
“So that kind of gives us that early March timeframe of 2026. Obviously, we'll keep [players] updated on any changes there, but that is our goal right now, and that's been our goal for a while in terms of the official release for the game, the 1.0 version.”
As for how the team is feeling about the open beta thus far, Caras admits that “obviously there are some things that we understand, and we knew this going into open beta, that there are going to be improvements that need to be made. And we have been making improvements. We've been doing our best to be transparent with the community.”
That being said, the team is “thrilled” with the way the open beta has gone down with players thus far. “Because of what we've seen with Open Beta throughout this last week, there's a very bright future with Heroes of Newerth Reborn. Internally, we feel that, and hopefully the community sees that as well. It's getting us going, knowing that we do have a pretty awesome shot here at doing something special with this game.”
Heroes of Newerth is currently playable in open beta on PC via Juvio.
