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Valve has decided to end development with the reboot of its Artifact digital trading card game after realizing that regardless of the improvements, players simply aren’t interested enough in playing it.
Artifact was designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and is based on the Dota 2 universe. It focuses on online player vs. player battles on three boards. When it first launched on Steam in 2018, the gameplay and mechanics were well received, but the learning curve was steep and the monetization model annoyed gamers. You had to pay for the game and then pay more for new cards, which couldn’t be traded through Steam.
With negative reviews and low active player counts, Valve decided to spend time restarting the game, which was referred to as the Artifact 2.0 Beta. However, after nearly 18 months of development, the team is throwing in the towel.
In a Steam post, the Artifact team explained: “While we are reasonably satisfied that we have achieved most of our goals on the game side, we have failed to bring the number of active players to a level that warrants further development on this. As such, we have made the difficult decision to stop development of Artifact 2.0 Beta. “
The Beta has been renamed the Artifact Foundry and, along with the original version (Artifact Classic), is now free for everyone with a Steam account. The post goes on to say: “Technically, Artifact Foundry is still an unfinished product, but most of what is missing is polish and art, the main game is there. While both games will remain playable, we do not plan to send any more game updates. “.
With the monetization model removed and all cards now free, Artifact Foundry and / or Classic may become more popular than ever. And as a way to reward players who paid for the game and new cards in the past, Valve is converting their existing cards into Collector’s Edition versions “that will remain marketable.”
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