Valve is changing how it releases Deadlock updates going forward, meaning we’ll see less of them in 2025. The Half-Life and Counter-Strike maker says the current cycle of patches is making it difficult for the team to iterate the MOBA, which is why we’ll be waiting longer between major updates from now on. This isn’t a bad thing, though, because Valve also makes it clear that major Deadlock changes will now be bigger than before, even if we’re waiting longer for them to drop.
While the full Deadlock release date is likely a long time off, Valve’s new MOBA is still going strong. As of right now the game pulls in around 20,000 concurrent players a day on Steam, and that community is helping Valve morph the game into what it needs to be. Up to this point, Valve has been changing Deadlock with fortnightly updates, but going into 2025, says this is changing.
“As we start 2025 we are going to be adjusting our update schedule to help improve our development process,” Valve developer ‘Yoshi’ writes in the Deadlock Discord. “While it was very helpful for us in the beginning, we’ve found that our fixed two-week cycle has made it more difficult for us to iterate on certain types of changes internally, as well as sometimes not giving enough time for the changes themselves to settle externally before the next update came around.”
“Going forward, major patches will no longer be on a fixed schedule. These patches will be larger than before, albeit a little bit more spaced out, and hotfixes will continue to be released as needed. We look forward to fleshing out the game in the new year.”
While this change to Deadlock’s patch cadence might sound bad on paper, it’s going to serve you better in the long run. Valve can now iterate on its ideas longer before putting them into the game, and you’ll have more time to evaluate these changes yourself before the next update rolls around. These patches being bigger also means they could feel like more of an event, instead of just balance changes and mechanical tweaks to many of the heroes. Also, Yoshi makes it clear that hotfixes will still come as and when they’re needed, so small changes aren’t going anywhere.
The recent Deadlock holiday event, which blanketed the map in snow and included new costumes, was a nice change of pace. If waiting longer for Deadlock updates means we’ll get more patches like that, then I’m all for Valve shaking up how it approaches development.
Don’t forget to brush up on all the Deadlock characters as Valve continues to change them. You can also check out our sister site Deadlock Rank, which has all the stats and details you need to know about Valve’s next game.
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