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.
