Valve Officially Reveals Deadlock, a Game We’ve Heard Nothing About

It’s one of the least secret unannounced games I can remember in the last decade, but now it has an official Steam page. It looks like Valve is finally ready to acknowledge Deadlock consists.

Noticed today by a few astute social media users, Deadlock has finally made a public Steam page announcing the title’s existence, the fact that Valve is making it, and that it’s a game with a spooky atmosphere and not much else set in stone yet. The page features a bright orange message at the top telling readers that the game is “in early stages of development with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay.”

According to people who are aware of the private information Deadlock playtest Discord, Valve developers are also lifting restrictions on talking about the game, and playtesters can even stream their matches. This all comes after leaks, more leaks, and a much-publicized gameplay breakdown from The Verge after it was discovered that the “informal NDA” screen that told playtesters not to share anything from the playtest didn’t even need to be approved to navigate.

There are reportedly hundreds of thousands of people who already have access to the game. While this is the first day the game has been announced, I would venture to say that we know more about the game in its current state than we don’t.

But hey! Even if that wasn’t Valve’s marketing strategy of getting at least tens of thousands of people to invite their friends to a private playtest, it’s hard to deny that it hasn’t been effective. The game looks creepy and cool, with the short animation on its Steam page leaning toward noir and occult vibes, as well as a unique art style that looks unlike anything else in the hero shooter market – important, considering some of the genre’s well-publicized flops in an increasingly crowded space.

The reported hero-shooter-plus-MOBA isn’t free and public. The devs reiterated in the Discord that much of the gameplay and art is “experimental,” and therefore subject to change. So Deadlock could look very different when we finally get a release date in sight.

But with so much publicity and apparent goodwill behind the project, it’s hard to imagine the game not becoming a success.