'Artifact' News: Valve Confirms That Upcoming Card Game Will Not Be Free-To-Play
Earlier this week, Valve had a special closed-doors event to the press where it finally divulged some more information regarding "Artifcat," its upcoming card game based on the "DOTA 2" universe and lore. By far one of the most interesting tidbits of news to come out of the event is the fact that, unlike Blizzard's "Hearthstone" and CD Projekt Red's "Gwent," two of "Artifacts" biggest competitors, "Artifact" will not be free-to-play.
Valve president Gabe Newell sat down and discussed many of the details surrounding their mysterious upcoming card game to the press, according to reports. One such detail is the fact that "Artifact" will be a pay-to-play model, just like any other retail game or, perhaps more appropriately, just like a real-life card game.
Valve also discussed that, perhaps to imitate the experience of trading and selling physical cards, "Artifact" will have its own dedicated marketplace, similar to the one that already exists on Steam for in-game items from other Valve properties such as "DOTA 2," "Team Fortress 2," and "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive."
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It was also revealed during the event that mathematician and game designer Richard Garfield is behind the development of Valve's upcoming card game. To those who may not be familiar with the name, Garfield created "Magic: The Gathering," arguably one of the biggest and most influential trading card games in the world. So, whether or not people are disappointed in Valve's decision to move toward card games, at least the game in question is in good hands.
For the time being, "Artifact" is still in closed beta and only available to members of the industry and professionals in the trading card game scene. As far as a public release date goes, Valve said that it is planning to release the PC version of the game by the end of 2018 with a mobile release to follow during the first quarter of 2019. It also announced that, come 2019, "Artifact" will have its own million-dollar tournament similar to The International for "DOTA 2."
