https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/valve-s-newly-announced-deadlock-hits-peak-of-near-90k-players
The just-revealed MOBA shooter is still early in development, but its closed beta is taking off pretty well with players.
Other studios: hyping a game 3 years away from release date (which will definitely be delays for another 2 years with half the content cut).
Valve: barely make an "announcement" of a game in "early development", which already fully functional, near complete, with 90K peak players/beta testers.
Blizzard meanwhile: puts development of the first game on halt, promises a lot for the second game and delivers nothing in the end while removing the first game for the barebone second one. But at least the shop works
Did they formally announce it, though? Yes, it has a Steam page now and the NDA was lifted, but I don't think I've seen any formal announcements from Valve about it yet.
I recommend going to the Steam Forums. There are hundreds of threads there where people give out free invites to the game.
It's honestly a pretty fun game! It is Overwatch+Dota and the way they've done landing/farming with last hits and denies in a shooter is really interesting.
Team fights are fairly chaotic and I can't tell what's going on, and honestly there might be too much complexity, but the moment to moment gameplay is really solid. Movement and shooting feel great, combat is chunky and satisfying, and comebacks are semi common.
IDK if I have the desire to get into another MOBA like this, but this is unique enough to enjoy playing with friends for awhile.