After adopting an interesting tactic of staying silent about its new MOBA shooter, Valve has finally acknowledged Deadlock. This announcement comes after several months of invites to a closed playtest of Deadlock reached thousands of Steam users’ inboxes. Originally, everyone playing Deadlock was instructed not to talk about it, but that didn’t stop dozens of gameplay videos and impression threads from appearing online.
The Rise of Deadlock
Now that Deadlock has a name and a store page, it has become one of the most-played games on Steam every day. The number of invites going out is also on the rise. Deadlock is listed as ‘limited access’ on its Steam store page, which means you can get in one of two ways: randomly get invited by Valve or get invited by a friend who’s already in the playtest.
How to Get into the Deadlock Beta
If you’re wondering how to gain access to Deadlock, the process is now more straightforward. ‘Access to Deadlock is currently limited to friend invites via our playtesters,’ is the official language on its store page. You can see which of your friends are already in the beta over on the right side of the store page. After a friend hooks you up with an invite, you’ll get a Steam notification.
How to Invite a Friend to Deadlock
Unlike when things were hush-hush, you don’t have to provide a friend’s Steam profile and attached email anymore. Now, you can invite your friends to Deadlock directly via the in-game menu. Click ‘Invite your friends’ in the bottom right of Deadlock’s start menu. This will bring up a list of your current Steam friends where you can invite whoever you like. Valve does say ‘invites are typically sent out within 1-2 days, but sometimes may take longer,’ so bear that in mind.
Additionally, Valve has been gradually sending out Deadlock invites in waves, and the number of playtesters has skyrocketed recently. Whether you are a seasoned Dota 2 player or someone new to Valve’s multiplayer games, your chances of getting an invite are honest and random.
Conclusion
Mathematically, your chances get better every day. In early August, Deadlock reached a record 18,000 concurrent players. A few weeks later, that record surged past 89,000. So if you’re eager to play Deadlock, keep a close eye on your Steam notifications and the email inbox associated with your account.
