Valve has finally responded to speculation about when the next big Deadlock update will arrive, and it’s not as soon as you might have hoped. It’s been seven months since the release of Old Gods, New Blood, the major overhaul that added six more heroes to the MOBA, and speculation that the next one could launch at any moment had reached a veritable fever pitch. With questions running rampant in the game’s official Discord server, developer ‘Yoshi’ stepped in at last, providing a rough timeline to calm the waters.
Asked by one user (among a chorus of many) if the long-awaited Deadlock patch could arrive next week, Yoshi responds, “No, we’re still working heavily on it.” He explains that “the update has taken longer than expected” and that the team had originally planned for it to be out already. “We know this isn’t what you wanted to hear, especially with the recent community speculation that it could arrive any day now,” he remarks.
Yoshi says that Valve wanted to hold off on giving any specific schedule for the rollout until it knew if the update “simply needed another week or two, or if it was needing a little longer than that,” in order to give the most accurate timeline possible. Unfortunately, the noise of players guessing at the date, or simply demanding a response from Valve, has been growing so loud over the past week or two that it began to overwhelm any actual discussion within the server.
“The best estimate we can make right now is that it will be late September,” Yoshi continues. “If we’re able to release it sooner, we certainly will, but that is unlikely.” He explains that the delay isn’t the result of a change in scope for what’s included in the update, but simply “due to the regular process of playtesting and iteration sometimes taking longer than expected.”
So there you have it. Rest easy for now, and know that we’re not due to get any dramatic new modes, map redesigns, or meta-altering shakeups for at least a few more weeks. “We hope you will like the update when it comes out,” Yoshi adds, “and we’ll make sure to give you a heads up (or order a ton of pizza) when things are a few days away or so.”
