Summary
Valve’s casual approach to announcing and marketing its upcoming hero shooter Deadlock has been humorous. First, Valve didn’t officially acknowledge the game’s existence until over 50,000 players were actively playing it. Then, the studio ‘unveiled’ the game but without any fanfare. Now, a fellow developer has pointed out an interesting omission from the game’s Steam page.
Deadlock’sstore pageis bare, containing only a short video of one of the game’s environments with music in the background. Adeveloper publishing their game on Steamhas pointed out that the lack of screenshots on Deadlock’s page is violating Valve’s publishing rules.
“Screenshots are displayed on your store page, and on other pages where your game may be featured such as the Steam homepage. You must provide at least 5 screenshots of your product,” reads the ‘Screenshots’ section ofSteam’s partner documentation.
Valve Software is Breaking the Rules
As the developer of the upcoming action-horror game B.C Piezophileso eloquently and sarcastically put it, “I am not laughing and this is not a joke. Valve Software is actively violating [its] own rules. Store page submissions require a minimum of 5 screenshots. Review process has been intentionally bypassed. I am not laughing.”
Has Valve knowingly bypassed the company’s own submission rules to publish Deadlock on its storefront? Probably. Valve owns the store, who is going to stop them? Still, it’s funny that Deadlock has no screenshots or proper description to speak of despite an average concurrent player number of around 50,000.
For those who haven’t been keeping up with Valve’s latest multiplayer offering, Deadlock is a 6v6 third-person hero shooter with a fantastical 1900s aesthetic. It’s sort of like Overwatch but with MOBA elements, a genre mashup that’s becoming increasingly popular.
Theorycraft Games' Supervive is another ‘hero shooter’ with ‘MOBA elements’ but Supervive is played with an isometric camera, not from the third-person perspective like Deadlock.
Valve hasn’t made public any plans to release Deadlock or any sort of roadmap. It’s Valve, the studio doesn’t have to engage in the usual marketing antics to promote its games. The only way to currently access Deadlock is through an invite from someone who already has access from your Steam friend list.
Deadlock
WHERE TO PLAY
Deadlock is an upcoming game from Valve which seemingly combines elements of the MOBA and hero shooter genres. As it is still in early development, gameplay and assets may be incomplete. Access is granted via friend invites.
