- Valve says Deadlock is still "unfinished" and there's work to do before the game is fully released to the public.
- According to Steam's dev update page, Valve wants to listen to community feedback and adjust Deadlock's features.
- However, the studio has confirmed that they're working on other redesigns and additional game modes to expand the game.
Valve’s new MOBA Deadlock isn’t quite ready for a full release yet, but it’s already breaking records. Thanks to the massive City Never Sleeps update, Deadlock smashed its all-time player count on September 30, 2026, reaching nearly 230,000 players. However, Valve says Deadlock is still “unfinished” and that a lot of work remains: “We are thankful for the constant support and useful feedback, despite the game being unfinished.”
Valve Teases Major Item Changes and New Modes Planned for Deadlock Before Full Release
According to Deadlock’s first major dev update on Steam, Valve says, “We think building a multiplayer game is very hard and risky, and the best way to minimize that risk to make sure that we are able to have it in players’ hands from an early state to help us shape it and tell us what is fun and what isn’t.”
Valve noted that after Deadlock’s first major 2026 update, ‘Old Gods, New Blood’, the team started working on multiple things in parallel, on things like hero customizations and progression-related systems:
“There was still a good amount of work we wanted to do on the core game itself before we moved onto more polish phases of the game development,” said Valve. “This even includes things like progression and hero/hideout customizations, as we feel those are features we want to be able to adjust and significantly change based on feedback before the game is fully released.”
So, the game is still a long way from its full release. It’s still hard to call the game “unfinished” when Deadlock’s City Never Sleeps patch added six new heroes, overhauled the map, and introduced features like the Cursed Item Shop.
However, Valve has confirmed that they’re still working on new content: “There are also other things we’ve been working on recently that are more speculative (as in we aren’t 100% sure if they will be released or not based on how playtesting goes, though results so far have been promising) like large item redesigns/additions and alternate game modes that expand the scope of the game.”
As for the visual updates for older Deadlock characters, the studio said that they “will likely be gradually working on them in the near future for inclusion in upcoming updates alongside other work,” after they’ve fleshed out the core game modes.
Deadlock is still in its “invite-only” status, and Valve’s comments don’t hint at when the MOBA will have a full release. However, given Valve’s development approach, Deadlock could remain in development for another year, making a late 2027 or early 2028 release a reasonable estimate.
