Valve finally confirms new game, shares first details on Deadlock

If you had asked me a few months ago what I thought Valve would be working on next, I wouldn’t say it would be anything like Deadlock. With everyone still hoping for a Half-Life 3 appearance at some point, it feels like a bit of a swerve for the developer’s next project to be a multiplayer hero shooter. Yet, here we are, and finally after weeks of rumors and secret playtests, Deadlock has been officially confirmed.

The gaming world was first alerted to the existence of Deadlock a few weeks ago thanks to eagle-eyed fans keeping a watch on the Steam backend. Since then, it’s become clear that this is a hero shooter multiplayer game, much in the same vein as Overwatch 2, Valorant, and Apex Legends – albeit with some Valve-y twists. With thousands of players already being invited to test the game, it seemed impossible to keep word about the title quiet – and indeed, information leaked out pretty much everywhere.

Secrecy appears to be a thing of the past, as Valve has uploaded a Steam store page for the title. Information is pretty thin on the ground, however, with the description only stating that “Deadlock is a multiplayer game in early development,” and that the game “is still in early development stages with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay.”

While playing Deadlock will, for the time being, remain invite only, a post on the Deadlock Discord has informed players that they can now talk about and share their experiences. “We are lifting the rules for public conversation about Deadlock to allow for things like streaming, community websites and discussions,” the post reads.

This means that we can expect to see Twitch and YouTube become alive with the sound of Deadlock players very soon – one example is the video above, from the channel ‘CopKing,’ which has been very quick off the mark to get gameplay uploaded.

There’s no launch date for Deadlock yet, it’s only listed as coming soon. If you would like to add the game to your wishlist to keep an eye on the game’s development, you can do so over on the Steam page.

While you wait for Deadlock to fully appear, you can take a peek at our guides to the very best FPS games you can play, as well as our picks for the best upcoming PC games of 2024 and beyond.

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