Valve officially annouces Deadlock, weeks after footage started appearing online

Valve has officially announced Deadlock.

The announcement follows weeks of discussion about the game, and footage appearing across social media.

The multiplayer title, which has been a “friends and family” closed beta for some time, now has an official store page on Steam.

Deadlock is a 6-vs-6 third-person hero shooter. Valve warns that the game is still in early development and that the current build of Deadlock contains “lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay”.

The game’s store page features a brief trailer and one piece of concept art. Players can currently only gain access to the game if they’re invited by someone currently involved in the playtest.

Despite Valve’s secrecy around the game, discussion of the game on social media has increased in recent weeks. Hours of video from the game’s closed test can be found across social media.

There isn’t currently a release date for Deadlock, nor has Valve provided minimum or recommended system requirements for the game on the Steam page.

Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell said in 2021 that the company had multiple games in development and was keen to make more single-player experiences following Half-Life Alyx’s release the previous year.

The company’s most recent release was last year’s Counter-Strike 2. Before this, it had mainly focused on VR titles for some years. Valve has reportedly developed and subsequently cancelled dozens of titles in recent years.