Those poor Team Fortress 2 fans.
Valve has very much done a Valve again. The Seattle-based videogame chocolate factory has never been one for the expected and has released its latest game, Deadlock, in an unprecedented fashion: by acting like it didn’t exist even as it invited thousands of people to play it Now, its existence is official. But you still gots to be invited.
Deadlock first appeared on Steam on 28 April, 2024, and from May to June built slowly to have around 2,000 average concurrent players per day. At sometime in early August the number of players begins to explode, with the game peaking at 45,000 concurrent players on Sunday August 15. As I write there are 33,000 people playing Deadlock.
The numbers went up because Valve gave players the keys. Any Deadlock player can recommend others on their Steam friends list for access, and most seem to be let right in. At which point they can then recommend others. For all this is a game that’s supposedly secret, and that its players weren’t supposed to talk about until just over an hour ago, Deadlock’s initial distribution method is word-of-mouth.
The genius element of this was the social side. By giving players the ability to invite other players, Valve made access its own little currency, complete with that omerta-like plea of silence. One of the richest companies in gaming has spent $0 and everyone interested in the scene has heard about this ‘unreleased’ game, seen the ‘leaks’, and many are banding together to get in. Hell the game has a subreddit.
Then, on a quiet Friday when everyone was winding down, Valve finally acknowledged the game existed, replaced the « don’t talk » sign with one saying « all feedback welcome », and gave the thing a Steam page where, of course, you can wishlist it.
I mean, well played. Deadlock would’ve inevitably attracted interest anyway, simply for being a Valve game, but now this genre mishmash is on any PC gamer’s radar. I haven’t had access yet, and I’ve ended up just watching a ton of Deadlock videos instead and there are so many: since March, multiple YouTube channels dedicated to the game have sprouted up, most with hours upon hours of footage. And Deadlock is an odd one, with perhaps the most important caveat being that this is clearly an unfinished game: and somehow a familiar one.Oops! I Dota again.
Valve has had huge success with Dota 2, as has Riot with League of Legends, but even though both games remain massive the genre feels a little played-out.
