Valve Stops Development on Artifact

Valve has announced that development on the Artifact 2.0 Beta has ceased, as the game has failed to attract the customer base the company had hoped for. While the news will be disappointing to fans of the game, Valve has announced that Artifact Classic and Artifact Foundry (the new name for Artifact 2.0 Beta) will now be available free to everyone! Since all new updates will cease, Artifact Foundry will technically remain an unfinished product. However, Valve claims that the game is merely missing some of the art, as well as a little polish. Otherwise, the gameplay experience is intact.

Valve has listed the following changes for 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.

Valve has also listed the following changes for Artifact Foundry:

• 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.

Making the games completely free will allow fans to continue enjoying them, despite the lack of updates. Some might be disappointed regarding the money they've already spent, but it seems Valve has taken steps to make those fans happy. This clearly isn't the situation that Artifact fans were hoping to see, but Valve's approach seems like the best way this could have been handled. In fact, making the game completely free might convince some players to give Artifact a chance! Ironically, that might give the game the opportunity to find the fanbase that has so far eluded it.

Artifact Classic and Artifact Foundry can be found on Steam right here.

Are you disappointed that Artifact development has ceased? What do you think about the game being made free to everyone? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about all things gaming!