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If you read Ars Technica regularly, you know since May that Valve is working on deadlocka mishmash of genres that slowly amassed SteamDB-tracked players through an invite-only playtest. Over the weekend, Valve removed the “hide” part from this “hide-in-plain-sight” test and created a bare-bones Steam page for deadlockthe company's first attempt to develop a new game franchise since trading card game artifact was launched in 2018 (and fell apart in 2021). The new site, which went live on Saturday, contains very little information about deadlockaside from a description as a “multiplayer game in early development” and a 22-second trailer that essentially pans over a concept image. Everything from the game's system requirements to its release date is still “TBD,” and players lucky enough to receive “friend invites via our playtesters” are promised “temporary art and experimental gameplay” on the Steam page.
Not that a Steam page is absolutely necessary for more information on deadlock at this point. Since the first leaks months ago, playtesting has slowly expanded from hundreds to tens of thousands of players, including some who have posted detailed impressions of the game. Valve has also reportedly relaxed streaming rules for invited playtesters, leading to a rush of players showing off live gameplay on Twitch.
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These extended streams and impressions show a six-on-six hero shooter (a la Watch), but with teams of NPC drones to protect Dota2-style Battle Lanes. There is also the required Fortnite-Style cover construction, Titanfall-style double jumps and aerial sprints, melee attacks and parries, and all the unlockable skills you could want.
Given all of this direct information, the presence of a new Steam page serves mostly as an anchor for wishlist-based reminders, custom tagging (bot “MOBA” and “cute” are popular right now), and plenty of invite-begging spam/scams on the community hub and forums. Still, it's not every day that an entirely new title appears on Valve's old Steam developer page – we've set a reminder to check for the next one around 2030.