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Filed under: News, Steam, videogames

Deadlock Open Beta | Launching as Soon as July?

Originally titled Neon Prime, Deadlock is a new 6v6 team-based hero shooter being developed by Valve. It’s similar in format to popular games like Smite and DOTA 2, and will likely be Valve’s next major release. Deadlock has been in early build playtesting since April of last year, and prior to that the game had been thoroughly play tested by the employees of Valve and their families.

Gameplay footage from one of the early builds can be seen in the clip below:

According to an insider source who has had access to an early development build of the game, the open beta will be available to play in July of this year. Along with the claim came screenshots and videos of this “insider build” of Deadlock, which was the build I previously mentioned that had been tested by Valve’s employees before the game went into its closed Alpha testing phase.

This news was first posted on the /r/GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, and featured images of the alleged leaker’s gameplay as well as their beliefs on the release date for the open beta.

Deadlock launched into a closed alpha in the Summer of 2024 and enjoyed over 170k concurrent players. The game even became the top game on Steam last Summer, despite it being a closed alpha build.

Since then the player count has greatly diminished to around a 10k-20k peak concurrent players depending on the day, but with the open beta likely only a few months away, it will be interesting to see how many new and returning players jump in to experience Valve’s new hero shooter.

It’s a fair assumption that with the initial popularity and continued interest in news surrounding the game’s development process, the open beta will have plenty of gamers to sustain an active online player base. With these new leaks and the beta seemingly imminent, there are many Valve fans eagerly awaiting some official information from the development team.

Valve has yet to announce an official release date for Deadlock or its upcoming open beta, but many rumors are suggesting that it will likely have a late 2025 or early 2026 official launch. Are you excited to give it a try? Let us know in the comments below.