Deadlock, this MOBA + shooter hybrid game, is currently in semi-early access. Valve has always been notoriously low-key in its communications and has never promised to update the game on a fixed schedule.
It’s precisely this uncertainty that makes Deadlock players treasure every new rumor or every post by “Yoshi,” the official Discord and forum account. Some players even stake out pizza shops near Valve’s Seattle office, speculating that a surge in customers means the developers have finished the next big update and come out for a group meal.
This week, Deadlock players were expecting Valve to roll out follow-up content for the “Old Gods, New Blood” update. That update added six new heroes and introduced numerous major changes. Valve had previously stated that, in addition to two small updates for ranked mode and items, a “major content update” was in development. Now that the ranked mode overhaul has gone live, players are hoping to get their hands on another wave of updates before the end of the month.
According to Yoshi’s latest post, development progress on this update has been slower than expected. Yoshi didn’t specify whether this referred to the item update or the major content update—implying that the two may have merged into one patch—only stating that the update won’t go live until “late September.”
They wrote: “The delay is mainly because the routine testing and iteration process took longer than expected, not because the scope of the update itself was adjusted. We hope everyone will enjoy the update once it goes live. When we’re just a few days away from launch, we’ll definitely give you advance notice—or order a ton of pizza.”
Deadlock has been invite-only since its launch and hasn’t fully opened up. However, continuous updates over the past year have brought the game to a scale ready for public testing. Still, Valve’s style is always unpredictable; the studio has spent years developing projects only to quietly shelve them. But the “Old Gods, New Blood” update marks the first time Valve has heavily promoted a game patch, creating a dedicated update page and letting the community vote on the release order of new heroes.
This level of investment is unprecedented, suggesting that Deadlock holds a high priority among Valve’s projects. Since then, the game’s updates have maintained a steady pace.
Whether Yoshi’s mention of pizza was a joke or an inside reference, it at least shows that the Deadlock development team knows players are eagerly awaiting more content and plans to push updates forward as soon as possible. I also hope this means Deadlock is getting closer to a full open release, allowing more players to experience this finely crafted MOBA + hero shooter hybrid.