2024-08-24 20:45:00
For months, unofficial information about Valve’s upcoming online shooter “Deadlock” has been circulating on social media, but the publisher has remained silent until now. However, Valve has apparently given “Deadlock” an official Steam page, albeit with minimal information. The page lists Valve as the developer and publisher of the game. Specific details about gameplay or a release date are, however, nowhere to be found. Instead, there is only a note indicating that the game is in an early development stage: “Deadlock is in an early developmental phase with many temporary graphical assets and experimental gameplay. Access is currently limited to invitations from friends through our playtesters.” Nevertheless, Valve promises a “forthcoming announcement.”
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Information about “Deadlock” has been more than sparse so far.
(Image: Valve/Steam)
The only visual teaser shown is an animated image. The system requirements currently state only that Deadlock requires a 64-bit processor and a 64-bit operating system.
“Deadlock” was an open secret
Even though Valve remained silent for a long time, the existence of the game has long been an open secret. Gameplay scenes have been circulating on the internet for months. As statistics from the unofficial Steam database SteamDB show, around 64,000 people are now playing the shooter at peak times.
On Saturday evening, more than 60,000 people played “Deadlock” simultaneously for the first time.
(Image: SteamDB)
Since early August, the number of players has significantly increased – apparently Valve is now distributing more invitation links. These have so far been the only way to access “Deadlock.” There is no official route. This kind of soft launch is rather unusual for Valve, but may be intended as a form of guerrilla marketing campaign to deliberately generate attention. Because anyone who received an invitation link did not have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Meanwhile, more and more representatives from the gaming press have also been able to play Deadlock via invitation links. From initial impressions, Deadlock appears to be a mix of Valve’s team shooter Team Fortress 2 and Blizzard’s hero shooter Overwatch.
(vza)