Valve has decided to pull the plug on development for Artifact, the Dota 2 card game, citing a dwindling player count as one of the biggest reasons.
In a blogpost, the company talked at length about the decision to cease development on the Artifact 2.0 beta, the reboot of the original Artifact featuring a game mechanic and economy overhaul. Despite initial good sales, the player count dwindled, forcing their hand. “While we’re reasonably satisfied we accomplished most of our game-side goals, we haven’t managed to get the active player numbers to a level that justifies further development at this time. As such, we’ve made the tough decision to stop development on the Artifact 2.0 Beta.”
The Future of Artifacthttps://t.co/icBVxVtMRP
— Artifact (@PlayArtifact) March 4, 2021
As a result both games will remain playable and will go free-to-play. “Final releases of both Artifact Classic and Artifact 2.0 Beta (renamed Artifact Foundry) are available,” Valve said. “As an additional measure all players will get the cards they want for free as they won’t have to buy in-game packs anymore.” Those players who paid for cards (and the game itself) will see these transformed into special Collectors Edition versions while still earning packs of these collector edition cards.
The developers close out their statement with a thank you message to everyone who played the game. “We’re grateful to all Artifact players, and particularly to those who were able to help us tune and refine what would become Artifact Foundry. The team feels this is the approach that best serves the community. We’re proud of the work we’ve done on both games and excited about delivering them to a much larger audience of gamers.”
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