It’s funny: By the time we get to Summer Game Fest (maybe the Gabe Newell-led company is gearing up for that), basically everything about the game will be leaked, but Valve won’t even take the time to say anything other than “Deadlock exists… more details at such and such a time”.

On Twitter, Gabe Follower shared the Deadlock trademark. This account was the first to talk about the game and share several images of it. After leaking the screenshots, he was quiet for a long time, but changed his mind. The USPTO trademark applies to online computer games and the organization of competitions related to video games. This means that Valve trademarked a name of the game that will be an eSports title, and since Counter-Strike 2 is a similar title, they have experience in it.

Valve has officially filed a trademark for Deadlock. I wonder what it could be…. pic.twitter.com/4s8ZvbdPg9

— ‎Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) May 31, 2024

“Mark for: DEADLOCK™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of entertainment services, namely, providing online video games; providing online entertainment, namely, online computer games; entertainment services, namely, providing online computer games and online video games; electronic game services provided via the Internet; providing information in the fields of computer games and entertainment via the Internet; organizing contests related to video games, video game education, and video game entertainment; providing information in the fields of online computer games and online video games and computer games,” the USPTO wrote.

In 2022, Valve did the same for Neon Prime, but the trademark had expired, meaning the company did not update it. The concept could be a reference to the previous version of Deadlock, the sci-fi version, and we could already hear the project in 2019, because at that time the unannounced game was still called Citadel, so Valve is constantly tweaking it, but who knows if it will get to the point with Deadlock where it will tweak it again…?

Valve is a big enough company to just stop the project because they are in a pretty good financial position thanks to Steam Deck (not to mention Steam). The only question is when they will announce Deadlock. If they announce it.

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