Deadlock is an upcoming hero-shooter from Valve. It is a 6v6 third-person title that currently has 19 different heroes ranging from humans to creatures to robot and more. Each of these heroes have their own unique abilities. Deadlock features gameplay elements similar to MOBAs like Valve's own Dota 2. Players can enhance their hero by amassing a currency earned from getting kills against AI creeps and human players. There are lanes, various traversal options, and more staples of both the MOBA and hero-shooter genres.
Videos and screenshots of Deadlock have been shared far and wide online over the past couple of weeks. We have seen gameplay, menus, a look at the roster of playable characters, and basically most everything there is to know about the present state of Deadlock. Deadlock has a slowly expanding alpha test that people outside of Valve have been joining.
DeadLock is a game that Valve has not even announced yet.
In fact, Valve has only applied to trademark the name Deadlock just this past week. The application looks to cover "on-line computer games" as well as "organization of competitions relating to video games." Though the application has been accepted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, it has not yet been approved.
In 2022, Valve also applied for a trademark application for something called Neon Prime. That application was "refused, dismissed, or invalidated" and is no longer active. There are rumors that suggest 2019's rumored Citadel became 2022's Neon Prime and eventually became Deadlock, but it's too hard to say with total certainty.
Valve has so far taken a very lackadaisical approach to dealing with the huge amount of leaks for Deadlock. There have been no takedowns of YouTube videos, no copyright strikes, no pulling of leaked images, or anything that you would typically think of happening when a game leaks early. That is to say, Valve seems to be perfectly fine with these leaks and may even be using the leaks to help shape development of the game. That, or their legal team is on vacation.
As with all games that are currently in development, especially ones not even officially announced yet, Deadlock could end up dead and never get an official release. Valve could can the project or decide to rework massive parts of the game before trying it all over again with new tests.
