Valve is dropping development on Artifact 2.0. The reboot was intended to right the ship for the studio's failed take on card games, but after over a year in development, the devs have found that there's not enough interest from players to keep things going. But now, both versions of Artifact are going completely free for everyone.
"It's now been about a year and a half since the current Artifact team began work on a reboot in earnest," Valve says in the announcement. "While we're reasonably satisfied we accomplished most of our game-side goals, we haven't managed to get the active player numbers to a level that justifies further development at this time. As such, we've made the tough decision to stop development on the Artifact 2.0 beta."
The original Artifact is now completely free - no purchase to start playing, and every single card is unlocked from the start. Players who already owned cards will see those cards transformed into 'Collector's Edition' versions that can be sold through the marketplace. But that's the only marketplace integration in the game now - everything else has been stripped out.
RELATED LINKS:
Artifact 2.0 really is a totally new game
Artifact 2.0 beta sign-ups are live
Artifact has had more players this weekend than it has in a year