I still remember the time when Artifact was announced at the Invitational event, which led to a chorus of “boos” around the arena. A card game based on Dota 2 was not fans wanted, nor did anyone asked for. When numbers tanked, Valve tried to save the game by revealing a development reboot, version 2.0. After over a year since then, the promise has literally amounted to nothing.
It is amazing to think that Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering, once helped with Artifact’s design. Now, both versions of the game Artifact Classic and Artifact Foundry (also known as Artifact 2.0 beta) will be Free-to-Play.
Here’s an overview of the final changes to Artifact Classic:
The game is free for everyone to play.
All players get every card for free. You will no longer be able to buy card packs.
Paid players’ existing cards have been converted into special Collector’s Edition versions, which will remain marketable. Marketplace integration has been removed from the game.
Paid event tickets have been removed.
Customers who paid for the game will still earn packs of Collector’s Edition cards for playing; players who got the game for free will not.
The final release of Artifact Foundry looks like this:
The game is free for everyone to play.
Players gain access to cards by playing the game. All cards are earned this way; no cards or packs will be for sale and Artifact Foundry cards are not marketable.
All final card art that was in the pipeline is now in the game.
