Summary
A baseless rumour had been circulating on social media that suggested Tencent had givenRiot Games$200 million to create a competitor to Valve’s upcoming hero shooterDeadlock. However, the rumour was very far-fetched from the beginning, considering the screenshot accompanying these claims came from a fake PC Gamer article using a featured image no outlet would ever use.
Riot Games' communication manager took to social media to unequivocally clear up the rumours, essentially saying every aspect of the claims is preposterous.
People Will Believe Anything
“I see lots of crazy rumours, but this is extra fake,” Hixson writes. “The article in the screenshot doesn’t even exist. Tencent doesn’t fund our dev like this… that’s not how this works… that’s not how any of this works. There’s a lot cooking in R&D, but nothing like Deadlock.”
Riot Games is a strange target for a rumour like this, considering they have a highly popular MOBA in League of Legends and a highly popular hero shooter in Valorant. These are the two genres that Valve is mashing together in Deadlock, so it would seem a peculiar choice for Riot to target that niche when there are plenty of other genres the company has yet to explore.
We know that Riot is currently working on two titles set in Runeterra, the setting of League of Legends. The first is 2XKO, a free-to-play fighting game set for release in 2025, and the second is an unannounced MMO, which won’t be released for some time yet, considering the studio had to ‘reset’ development earlier this year to pursue a different direction.
Riot previously dabbled in other genres using its Riot Forge publishing label, but was shut down in January 2024 following a round of layoffs after having published six games in collaboration with various independent studios.
As for Valve, Deadlock remains in early development and is available for players to play if they wish.
Deadlock
WHERE TO PLAY
Deadlock is an upcoming game from Valve which seemingly combines elements of the MOBA and hero shooter genres. As it is still in early development, gameplay and assets may be incomplete. Access is granted via friend invites.
