Heroes of Newerth’s Facebook page recently updated their profile picture with a distinct image that screams “No HoN on mobile phone”.
For a game that has shut down three years ago, this update has definitely garnered attention over the potential official return of HoN.
No Mobile version for Heroes of Newerth (Image credit: Heroes of Newerth)
Heroes of Newerth on mobile
To recap, there was a recent rumor circulating around that the team behind HoN might be developing a mobile version of the popular game. This isn’t a baseless rumor since many of HoN’s competitors, such as Dota 2 and League of Legends, have also attempted their takes on a mobile version respectively. For instance, Dota 2’s Auto Chess and League of Legends’ Wild Rift which have found decent success in the mobile gaming scene.
Additionally, dedicated mobile MOBA games, such as Mobile Legends, Arena of Valor and Honor of Kings, have garnered a massive fan base, indicative of its success.
However, this latest update from HoN’s Facebook page, clearly implying that there is no work on a mobile version of HoN. Fans are once again left disappointed like the day HoN’s official servers ceased operations in 2022.
Heroes of Newerth (Image credit: Project KONGOR)
Can you still play HoN?
Heroes of Newerth was one of the original stand-alone spin-offs of Dota Allstars, and for several years was the dominant MOBA title. An almost entirely faithful recreation of Dota in a newer engine, HoN was incredibly popular and even held huge grand finals in Las Vegas. However, the game slowly lost ground to League of Legends and Dota 2, before shuttering in 2022.
Many Dota 2 pros, including 2024 TI winners Team Liquid, started as HoN players, and some current Dota 2 heroes have seen revitalization in Dota, with Ringmaster being a homage to legendary HoN hero Puppet Master.
Although the official HoN is no longer available, passionate HoN fans have come together to run an unofficial re-implementation of HoN.
Known as Project KONGOR, the initiative started merely three months after HoN officially shut down. It is a project that runs private server of HoN’s game services, allowing its players to continue to play the game.
Since re-implementing such a massive MOBA game will take time and effort over the coming years, it’s important to note that this unofficial version of HoN will be missing some features, have some bugs, experience downtime and even crashes. After all, it is a non-profit initiative – although only long as Garena, the owner of HoN, allows Project KONGOR to continue.