Valve, developer behind Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2 and the Steam platform, has officially acknowledged the existence of upcoming game Deadlock.
Deadlock was officially announced on the evening of Friday, Aug. 23 with a Steam page created for the game, and an official announcement post by Valve.
Details on the new game page are sparse. A single animatic acts as the game’s trailer and sole screenshot. The release date is listed as: To be announced. A notice on the page reads the following:
“Deadlock is in early development with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay. Access is currently limited to friend invite via our playtesters.”
Deadlock was the worst kept secret in gaming, leaking almost four months ago as early testers revealed screenshots. These leaks and rumors grew over the intervening weeks until last week when The Verge ignored the polite request by Valve to not share details which appeared in-game.
Image Credit: Valve
This breach of what the publication called a ‘pseudo-NDA’ caused widespread controversy. But partly it was Deadlock’s method of distribution that led to this eventuality – Instead of being official distributed, the game relies on, as described on it’s store page, “friend invite via playtester.”
This means there’s effectively little way for Valve to police who is playing their test, although presumably it could ban players if it wanted.
With the announcement of the game, dozens of players with access, some members of other Valve game communities, began streaming the game, publishing videos, or launching YouTube channels. Many of these channels were previously listed as private.
Deadlock’s Steam store page has almost no information about the game. It describes itself as “multiplayer game in early development.” It has been user-assigned the tags MOBA, Third-Person Shooter, and Team-Based. Valve has not made these definitions itself.
User reviews currently appear to be disabled, although Steam curators are currently able to leave comments and reviews about the game.
Deadlock does not have a confirmed release date or open beta period. Check out our coverage on Deadlock from early leaks to recent information.
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