Valve has officially halted development on Artifact, its struggling collectible card game based on the DOTA universe.
Valve made the announcement Thursday, citing a bad number of players following the launch of the game in 2018 and the subsequent reload, Artifact 2.0 beta.
“Although we are fairly satisfied that we have achieved most of our goals at stake, we have not yet managed to bring the active player numbers to a level that justifies further development at the moment,” the Artifact team wrote . “As such, we have made the difficult decision to halt the development of the Artifact 2.0 Beta.”
For the Artifact players who still adhere (or for those who have never given it a chance), Valve makes both versions of Artifact free for everyone, and players will have free access to all cards. Card packs are no longer available for purchase.
For players who have previously purchased card packs in Artifact Classic, they will see their cards converted into special Collector’s Edition versions, which will remain marketable among players. That said, the integration of the market is being removed. Players who previously paid for the base game from Artifact will continue to receive Collector’s Edition cards for play, while players who received Artifact for free will not receive it. Players can read the full details here.
“We are grateful to all Artifact players, and especially to those who were able to help us adjust and refine the Artifact foundry,” the Artifact team wrote. ‘The team believes this is the approach that can best serve the community. We are proud of the work we have done on both games and are excited to deliver it to a much larger audience. ‘