How complete is Deadlock? Valve’s MOBA shooter progress, explained

Thousands of players are finally getting into Valve’s new title Deadlock, with the MOBA shooter attracting attention far and wide after its super-special “private” playtest opened earlier in 2024. It’s clear from the outset the game is far from finished, but that’s what a playtest is for!

That said, many are keen to know just how far along Deadlock is in development since its rumored creation in 2023. Visually, it’s clear to see there’s work to be done—but with so many people enjoying the game, surely a release date can’t be far off?

Here’s everything we know about the current development of Deadlock and a little on when we might see it arrive in players’ hands as a complete game.

Is Deadlock finished yet?

The short answer is no, Deadlock is far from a finished product. One look at the near-daily patch notes and constant tweaks list is enough to know the MOBA shooter’s still in its early stages. Valve themselves have said there is still much work for Deadlock and the final product may look vastly different from what we get to play during the playtest.

The official page for Deadlock on Steam states the game is “still in early development stages with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay,” so knowing for sure what will stay and go compared to the final release isn’t known just yet. We think it’s safe to say the aesthetic (a mysterious mix of steampunk, 1950s noir, and even elements of Lovecraftian horror) will likely remain as well as a big chunk of the map’s layout.

Deadlock‘s gameplay too appears pretty locked in, but outside of that, much may change in future updates such as certain hero availability, character models, minion variations, and more. Unfortunately, Valve has kept pretty quiet on what will stay and what will go, and there’s no public roadmap giving us much of a timeframe, so all we can do is monitor each update as they arrive and see what’s new!

When can we expect to play the final version of Deadlock?

Valve seems to be following a pretty similar development cycle as their other multiplayer titles like Dota 2 and, more recently, Counter-Strike 2; a not-so-private playtest that allows the community to act as quality assurance. Once Valve is happy with the product, they’ll drop a major update and “soft-launch” the game.

This case is obviously a little different from Dota and Counter-Strike, as both had an existing base to build upon (DotA and CS:GO)—instead this is a completely new game, so the timeframe to launch should be a little longer than these examples.

The Deadlock Steam page still has “To be announced” as its planned release date, so we won’t say for sure how long we’ll be kept waiting. For now, the more hours we all put in via the playtest, the more data Valve has to develop the game.