Valve has filed to trademark Deadlock, the hero shooter the company still won’t confirm exists.
As spotted by Gabe Follower (thanks, PC Gamer), Valve’s trademark application is pending approval, but the developer has applied for trademark protection for the term Deadlock across the categories of “entertainment services, namely, providing video games; provision of online entertainment, namely, online computer games; games services provided by means of the Internet”. It was filed on Thursday, 30th May, 2024.
Of course, a trademark filing is just that, and is by no means evidence that Valve has a game of that name in development, or even proves that a game in mid-production will ever be released.
However, on top of the leaks that have been circulating for a couple of weeks now, it’s hard to imagine this is another “Neon Prime”, a different Valve trademark never came to be. Leaked details of Deadlock sprung onto the internet last week via images posted to social media and a report from longterm Valve reporter Tyler McVicker, which claimed that Deadlock was currently in closed testing. Shortly after, gameplay footage also leaked, showing off Deadlock’s training mode, more hero characters, and the existence of BioShock Infinite-style skyrails you can hook onto and ride around on.
As Tom pointed out for us at the time the leak went viral, the sci-fi setting of the game looks distinct from that of any Valve game setting so far – so no, this isn’t a new Half-Life spin-off. Hopefully – with Summer Game Fest right around the corner – we’ll find out more about it soon.