Valve’s new MOBA-esque 6v6 hero shooter, Deadlock, technically hasn’t been announced yet, but that hasn’t stopped tens of thousands of players from getting into it, pushing it into the top 100 most-played games on Steam right now.
At its peak, Deadlock has hit a total of 23,327 players and at the time of writing is currently at a 24-hour peak of 18,254 according to SteamDB‘s charts. As IGN reports, this huge player base for a game that is yet to actually be revealed to the public comes thanks to an invite system where players have been receiving invites to the game seemingly at random and are then able to recommend others to get access as well.
We first learned of the game via leaked images and footage back in May, thanks to the same early playtests, though it seems that Valve’s been taking on a sizable increase in new players, perhaps pushing towards a formal announcement and more public playtests.
Naturally, Valve is asking anyone invited and who joins to sign a strict NDA forbidding them from sharing screenshots or videos (as Sean at The Verge learned the hard way), though they are encouraged to discuss their experiences, which has resulted in a very active subreddit over at r/DeadlockTheGame. Users on the subreddit are already praising what they say is a game that’s easy to learn, but tough to master and with an especially high skill ceiling that should make for entertaining professional play, and is a good way to glean just what the game is like without the benefit of gameplay videos, just based on discussions among players.
Based on ongoing rumours and leaks, Deadlock’s gone through a number of changes in theme and aesthetic between early development and the state it’s in now, which may help to explain why Valve is hesitant to let folks see it just yet outside of playtests – presumably when an official announcement does happen it’ll be because the company has finalised the game’s art, assets and content plans.
