Riot Games has officially responded the rumors suggesting that they are working on a competitor to Valve’s upcoming game, Deadlock.
Valve, one of the biggest and most influential companies in the gaming industry, has been shaping the PC gaming scene ever since they released their groundbreaking title Half-Life in 1998.
Over the years, they have developed a number of iconic games that have become cornerstones of PC gaming. In addition to creating these popular games, Valve is also responsible for developing the largest digital storefront for PC games, Steam, which remains the go-to platform for millions of gamers worldwide.
Another major name in the video game industry is Riot Games. Riot Games is best known for their popular titles like League of Legends, Valorant, and Legends of Runeterra. However, it’s important to note that many of their games have drawn inspiration from other already-existing games.
Recently, Valve began the early testing phase for Deadlock, a new game that has been positively received by players during its initial playtests. As the game gained attention, rumors started to spread that Riot was planning to develop a competing title to challenge Deadlock.
This rumor took off after a fake article surfaced on 4chan, which falsely claimed that Tencent, Riot’s parent company, had granted Riot Games a $200 million budget to create a hero shooter aimed directly at competing with Deadlock. This article was crafted to appear as if it had been published by PC Gamer, a well-known gaming publication.
The rumors picked up even more steam when a user shared the fake article on Twitter , where it quickly gained attention and spread across the platform.
Eventually, the situation reached the point where Riot had to address the speculation. Joe Hixson, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Riot Games, took to Twitter to respond to the false claims. In his response, Joe clarified several points.
First, the supposed PC Gamer article does not exist, confirming that it was entirely fabricated. He also explained that Tencent does not provide funding to Riot Games in the manner described in the fake article. Lastly, he noted that while Riot is indeed working on various research and development projects, none of these projects resemble or aim to compete with Deadlock.
With Joe Hixson’s response, Riot has officially debunked the rumors about a potential Deadlock competitor, putting an end to the speculation surrounding the fake article.