Artifact's Reboot Is Large in Order to "Justify Its Existence," Gabe Newell Says
Edge reports it's internally being called Artifact 2.
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Valve's digital Dota card game Artifact didn't have quite the launch the company expected. But it looks like the company hasn't given up on the tri-lane board game. The reboot is so massive, it's reportedly being called a sequel of sorts.
In a new article from Edge (via GamesRadar), Valve founder and CEO Gabe Newell discussed the issues with Artifact and the impending reboot. He says that Valve was surprised by the response to Artifact, and that internally the studio believed it was a "really strong" game.
"We ran an experiment, we got a negative result, and now we need to see if we've learned anything from that, so let's try again," Newell told Edge. "And that's what [the Artifact team] have been doing and that's what they're getting ready to release. Based on the reaction to it, what was wrong with the product? How did we get there? Let's fix those things and take another run at it."
The planned rework of Artifact is reportedly so large, it's internally being called Artifact 2, according to Edge. Newell says Valve has to do a larger reboot "in order to justify its existence to customers and to markets." No date has been set yet for the launch of Artifact's big reboot.
Last March, Valve put out a blog about the state of Artifact, saying it "represents the largest discrepancy" between the company's expectations for a game's reception and the actual outcome.
While its former developers, like Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield, have speculated about the reason why it didn't succeed, Artifact has ultimately fallen by the wayside. Its player base is so scant that some streamers used the game's category on Twitch to broadcast NSFW content. Hopefully this "larger reboot" will be what's needed to give this unique card game a second wind.