Key findings
- Valve’s relaxed approach to announcing and promoting Deadlock has amused everyone.
- The lack of screenshots on Deadlock’s store page violates Steam’s publishing rules.
- Valve will have to punish Valve severely.
Valve’s casual approach to announcing and marketing its upcoming hero shooter Deadlock was humorous. First, Valve didn’t officially confirm the game’s existence until over 50,000 players were already actively playing. Then the studio “revealed” the game, but without much fanfare. Now a fellow developer has pointed out an interesting omission on the game’s Steam page.
Deadlock’s store page is empty, with only a short video of one of the game’s environments with music playing in the background. A developer who publishes his game on Steam has pointed out that the lack of screenshots on Deadlock’s page violates Valve’s publishing rules.
“Screenshots will appear on your store page and other pages where your game may be featured, such as the Steam homepage. You must provide at least 5 screenshots of your product,” says the “Screenshots” section of Steam’s partner documentation.
Valve Software violates the rules
The developer of the upcoming action horror game BC Piezophile put it so eloquently and sarcastically: “I’m not laughing and this is not a joke. Valve Software is actively violating (its) own rules. Store page submissions require a minimum of 5 screenshots. The review process has been intentionally bypassed. I’m not laughing.”
Did Valve knowingly circumvent their own corporate submission rules to release Deadlock on their store? Probably. Valve owns the store, who’s going to stop them? Still, it’s funny that there are no screenshots or proper description for Deadlock, despite it averaging around 50,000 concurrent players.
For those who haven’t been following Valve’s latest multiplayer offering, Deadlock is a 6v6 third-person hero shooter with a fantastic 20th century aesthetic. It’s a bit like Overwatch but with MOBA elements, a genre mashup that’s growing in popularity.
Supervive by Theorycraft Games is another “hero shooter” with “MOBA elements”, but Supervive is played with an isometric camera, not from a third-person perspective like Deadlock.
Valve hasn’t released any plans to release Deadlock, nor has it released any sort of roadmap. It’s Valve, the studio doesn’t need to engage in the usual marketing antics to promote its games. The only way to access Deadlock right now is via an invite from someone who already has access through your Steam friends list.
