Could Valve revive Artifact? New report sheds light on possible relaunch A source with inside knowledge at Valve is reporting that the game developer is planning a \u201c2.0 launch in 2020\u201d for the Dota-inspired digital card game that has sported dismal numbers since launch. The source also provides some explanation on what went wrong for Artifact. Looking back at the Dota 2 International 2017 crowd\u2019s reaction to the Artifact reveals, it\u2019s more sad than funny now. Well, it\u2019s still pretty funny. The anticipation built through the crowd as fans wondered Artifact could be. A massive update? A Dota sequel? A new game entirely? But when the words \u201cThe Dota Card Game\u201d appeared on the screen, the communal groans of disappointment ended up being a telling sign for Valve\u2019s newest project. But it appears that Artifact is not yet completely dead, as a source has revealed that Artifact project lead Brandon Rhienhart \u201cis working on retooling the game for a 2.0 launch sometime in 2020.\u201d Tyler McVicker, who operates the Valve News Network YouTube channel, posted a comment on the video titled \u201cValve\u2019s Most Shameful Disaster\u201d made by YouTuber Cr1TiKaL (aka penguinz0), and provided some context on Artifact\u2019s short, disastrous run. \u201cThe game was rushed due to pressures from Richard Garfield & Gabe Newell, the game was lied about in the lead up marking provided by Newell himself, and most importantly, Garfield demanded the monetization strategy above all else. Richard and his longtime creative partner were fired from Valve shortly after the game\u2019s launch.\u201d \u201cMore than anything else, Artifact proved that when left unchecked for over a decade, a company like Valve can become so incredibly out of touch that they became convinced they knew what their audience wanted, more than the audience itself.\u201d Artifact\u2019s launch was far below Valve\u2019s standards, reaching a player peak of roughly 60,000. The game cost, and still does cost, $20 to play, and is loaded with microtransactions. After its release in November 2018, Artifact\u2019s player base dropped at an exponential rate. From 11,000 average players in December, to around 750 in February, to less than 80 from June through August. In his comment, McVicker alludes to a deeper story regarding the failed initial run of Artifact: \u201cThe story of the game\u2019s original pitch, development, announcement, hype cycle, launch, and death is far more nuanced and detailed then [Cr1TiKaL] is illustrating here, and it deserves to be told soon.\u201d Valve has invested much into their new autobattler title Dota Underlords, which is inspired by the Dota 2 mod Autochess. It\u2019ll be interesting to see what changes they make to Artifact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Could Valve revive Artifact? New report sheds light on possible relaunch A source with inside knowledge at Valve is reporting that the game developer is planning a \u201c2.0 launch in 2020\u201d for the Dota-inspired digital card game that has sported dismal numbers since launch. The source also provides some explanation on what went wrong for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}