The rumor mill has been full of speculation after Valve trademarked NEON PRIME. However, most of the theories revolved around a potential entry to the Half-Life series, possibly the long-fabled Half-Life 3. But, according to Tyler McVicker, formerly known as Valve News Network, everyone's been wrong all along. Instead of a Half-Life spin-off, NEON PRIME is set in the Dota 2 universe and IceFrog is involved.
According to McVicker's sources, NEON PRIME might be a sci-fi take on the Dota universe with IceFrog at the helm.
The Dota universe is deep and diverse. Valve has plenty of avenues it can explore in Dota 2 even if this was technically the goal of Artifact, which failed at launch.
Dota 2 finds itself at a crossroads. On one hand, the anime adaptation on Netflix proved to be quite popular and a fourth season could be on its way. However, Dota 2 itself is past its prime. The prize pool for The International 2022 ($17.9 million) currently sits lower than the prize pool of The International 2015 ($18.4 million). After peaking last year at $40 million, there's a genuine concern among the Dota 2 community that the progenitor of the MOBA genre will slowly die out within the decade.