Valve is gearing up to release its first new game in four years, and we already know too much about it: we've seen dozens of Deadlock characters and their full movesets on YouTube, and we can peek into the file directory, There are some pretty popular subreddits, and as VG247 reported, the number of concurrent players reached 17,000 this weekend, and today it's over 18,000. Not bad for a game that hasn't even been announced yet.

Deadlock's crypto player base can observe its fluctuations on SteamDB. According to Pavel Djundik, the utility's creator, submitting the Steam key a few months ago made Deadlock's playtest details available to the public, and Valve took no steps to change them. But it seems certain that the studio is expanding the size of the Deadlock playtest: today's peak of 18,254 players is a 578% increase over last month's high, and frankly, many developers of full-release games would be overjoyed to put up such a number! would be overjoyed. [How can I not be excited about Valve's new game: I'm not really into multiplayer shooters anymore, but I'm still ready to dive into this game on day one. According to leaks, Deadlock looks to be a hero shooter with strong MOBA elements, including creeps, lanes, and an in-match store to purchase upgrades. In addition to the traditional third-person gunplay, the game also features a number of unique-looking characters with special abilities that can influence the course of battle.

And to be honest, Valve's refusal to acknowledge the game in the face of so much public information is comical, but the response is typical of Valve. The stony silence only adds to the deadlocked mystique. Any other company would have started demanding a DMCA for the leaked information, but Valve is deliberately letting things slide as if it were part of their plan. This leak fiasco is basically free advertising, and when the game is officially announced, it will not be tainted with bad feelings by a more forceful response.