First Dota Underlords update in a year could also mean its end

Valve may have ended work on Dota Underlords, judging by one particular change made in its first update in more than a year.

The change was brought to the public's attention in a new video by Tyler McVicker, a YouTuber who formerly ran the unofficial Valve News Network channel. McVicker also shared the news about Half-Life 3 allegedly being scrapped in favor of a Steam Deck-targeted RTS/FPS hybrid set in the Half-Life universe, citing info datamined from public Valve sources as its provenance. Just as before, McVicker points to datamines in a new YouTube video titled "Valve killed another game - ending support for Dota Underlords."

As you can see for yourself on Steam Database, an update for Dota Underlords went live earlier today, and it was the first to arrive since December 6, 2020. One of those changes seemingly set the end time for Dota Underlords' current season, Season 1, all the way back to 2031. While this could just mean Valve is really, really liking this season and wants to give it another decade to breathe, it could also be an indication that Valve has indefinitely postponed plans for the sort of content updates that would come with a new season of its auto chess game.

Dota Underlords first hit early access on Steam in June 2019 and was fully released in February 2020. We've reached out to Valve to see if it can clarify what this latest update means for the game's future and will update this article with any response.

While Valve is putting a lot of support behind its new handheld PC, the company says Steam Deck won't have exclusive games.