Valve Finally Announces Deadlock, Confirms Game Is in 'Early Development'

Valve has finally announced Deadlock, its upcoming hero-shooter that has appeared in several leaks over the past few months. The game is in early development and access is limited to invited playtesters. Footage and screenshots from Deadlock have previously surfaced online, but Valve had not confirmed the game's existence until now.

Deadlock Listed on Steam

Deadlock was confirmed via a Steam page listing over the weekend, with Valve listed as the developer and the publisher for the title. The studio has not yet provided a release timeline for the shooter, with the listing mentioning “Planned Release Date: T0o

“Deadlock is in early development with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay. Access is currently limited to friend invite via our playtesters,” the Steam listing for the title read. Users can now wishlist the game on the storefront.

Valve has not provided any details about the game, but the Steam listing features a 20-second teaser of an early development build of the game that shows a city block.

Withing hours of announcement, Deadlock reached an all-time peak concurrent player count of nearly 90,000 invited users on Steam. At the time of writing, 32,788 users were playing the game on Valve's platform, according to SteamDB charts.

Playtesters have revealed that Deadlock is a third-person team-based 6v6 hero shooter along the lines of Overwatch and Valve's own Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2.

The game was leaked earlier this year in May, with screenshots and gameplay revealing details. Deadlock was earlier known as Neon Prime and had reportedly been in development since 2018. The hero-shooter pits two teams of six against each other on four-lane maps, with each hero featuring distinct abilities and gear. Leaks had also claimed that the game would be set in a fantasy-steampunk world and will include tower-defense mechanics.

Deadlock is Valve's first game since Counter-Strike 2, launched in September 2023.