Valve has still yet to publicly announce or even acknowledge the existence of its next game, Deadlock. However, unlike the next Half-Life game, Deadlock is perhaps the worst kept secret in the industry right now, as over 16,000 people are actively playing it. 

It is rare to see a completely unannounced title garnering so many active players. In fact, Concord, Sony's next big live service game, only managed to win over around 2,000 players on Steam for its recent open beta test. However, Valve has a lot more influence in the multiplayer gaming landscape, thanks to years of PC dominance through titles like Counter-Strike, DOTA, Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress. That influence is pretty clear at this stage, with the unannounced game, Deadlock, garnering just shy of 17,000 players during a playtest last weekend.

Deadlock is a new hero shooter, reminiscent of titles like Team Fortress 2, but with more modern game design, built on the Source 2 engine, and with a new cast of characters to choose from.

We've already seen a number of in-game footage leaks in recent months due to these on-going playtests, which makes sense given the scale of these playtests. While Valve is clearly discussing Deadlock in private amongst a large group of invited play testers, the company has not yet publicly announced the game at all.

While the game remains unannounced, it seems highly likely based on the size of these playtests that Valve is gearing up to announce and release the game before the end of the year.

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KitGuru Says: Valve isn't scared of delays, so if playtests result in a lot of feedback, the team will take the time to rework things before unveiling Deadlock officially. With that in mind, the timing of Valve's next release can shift considerably. 

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