https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1024704399631822849

Looks like Brad Muir actually made it happen. Artifact has a real release date of November 28th for $20.

As someone who’s loved CCG’s and tabletop games for twenty-odd years, I’m really curious to see how this comes out. In the digital realm, no one has been able to match Hearthstone’s UI even after all these years, so I’m curious whether Valve will finally be the developer with the chops to step up.

That said, what’s come out about the games economy sounds like an absolute nightmare.

As someone who currently has an optimistic view on Games outside my genre favoritism, I will say, I have this pre conceived knowledge on how Valve as a game developer treats their games when it comes to micro transactions, community updates, and transparency in a way where I look at this new game which will probably clash with all of those things and I immediately say, “fuck them and fuck whatever they’re making”. Oh wait... this isn’t the waypoint forums...

does another microtransaction factory actually count as a game?

Wait... They're CHARGING for this?

It is exciting that Valve is shipping games again. Can't say I'm personally excited for this specific project though since I've never really gotten in card games. Tried Hearthstone and Shadowverse and didn't much care for either. Elder Scrolls Legends is sitting on my phone and has yet to be launched.

I doubt this will change my attitude, but still cool nonetheless?

Some more info via Ars Technica:

When you buy the base game for $20, you receive 2 pre-made starter decks of 54 cards each (5 heroes, 9 items, 40 other cards), as well as 10 card packs (12 cards each). Card packs cost $2 and contain 12 random cards (with at least 1 guaranteed "rare"). So the base game is basically the cost of 10 card packs, with 2 pre-made starter decks included for free. In other words, you get 228 cards for $20. There will be a total of 280 different cards in the game at launch.

I could see paying $20 for a card game if that was the whole game. I'm not participating in this thing where I pay $20 for a card game and then some more to get the rest of the content. Fuck that, sell me something and then make a different thing. I know that's just how these things work these days but I'm real tired of seeing it.

What a weird choice to not go the F2P route. A big reason I got deep into Hearthstone for a couple years, was the F2P model.
Charging up front creates a barrier that makes me much less likely to give this game a shot.

@aktivity: All signs point towards them specifically targeting card game enthusiasts, not the average person willing to try out any high profile free-to-start game. They got Richard Garfield (designer of MTG and Netrunner) as lead designer to craft a trading card game specifically for the digital format. He's gone on record saying it couldn't work in a physical format, and that he deliberately made it more complex than the competition, as he was disinterested in the simplified direction the market took. Above all, the game is a digital *trading* card game, not a collectible card game like Hearthstone. The couple-hundred cards included in the $20 base game (comparable to a MTG starter kit) can be traded with other Steam users and sold back on the Marketplace piecemeal. If you decide to drop the game, you can turn all of your cards into Steam wallet funds. That's why this game costs money up front and offers card packs.

This game has some incredible talent behind it. Can't wait to play this.

looking forward to it. Been diving into MTG:Arena and having a pretty good time with it, but there are definitly things about magic that makes a digital version of it not very snappy.

Wow, surprised they are charging money for this.

@justin258: I feel the same way. The Everything as a Service model is mostly garbage and stuff like this will only become more common because of it.

Implying Dota 2 isn't a game or...? I'm not sure what you're actually trying to get at.

I'm excited to see what the game looks like and will hold judgement for a much later time. Valve hasn't released anything bad yet.

@aktivity: Eh, I feel the total opposite. The F2P model is exactly what kept me away from Hearthstone. Soooo much money involved, and I always felt like I was getting stomped by someone who had invested more money than me. I know, I know. 'Git gud'. But it's hard when players are dropping 10/6 boss cards they got from the latest expansions when I'm stuck with the most basic ass starter decks and a handful of dupes.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to this. It's got Richard Garfield backing it, usually Valve makes pretty competent games, and I always loved the art and character designs of DOTA just not the game itself. This seems like the perfect DOTA game for me ?

I'm pretty excited for this game due to the people behind it. $20 is fine with me if you just treat it like an actual CCG. Is it confirmed that the only way to get new cards is through card packs though? Wouldn't surprise me but kinda weird post-Hearthstone.

@turboman: From the sounds of it, I think you can buy and sell cards straight up via the Steam marketplace. Or at least that's how I've been interpreting it when they describe how the marketplace functionality works.

I think that's pretty cool honestly. It really is going to be like an actual card game but in the virtual space. Certain cards will be more rare than others and those ones will go for top dollar on the marketplace. Hopefully they'll release some sort of rarity/odds indicator though so people know just how unlikely it will be to get that extra shiny Beast Master card.

I read 'Valve finally releasing a game', stopped and I thought 'What? OMG! Half-Life 3! Yeahhhh!' And then, nope. Just kidding. But yeahhhhh, tell me when Half-Life 3 is announced, not some card game.

mmm 20 bucks and a additional 2 bucks for a 12 card booster pack Don't know how i feel about that in this day and age. + i don't even know if this game is even gonna be legal in my country with all these new digital gambling laws (Belgium).

At least your able to sell cards on the steam marketplace that's at least a plus

@big_denim: I don't see how this game is gonna be all that different on that front. You' re still gonna have to keep up with purchasing new packs, or you' re gonna run into the same issues you had with Hearthstone. Except you're also paying upfront for the starter decks and heroes. The ability to sell cards on the marketplace is neat though.

I actually think Blizzard did a pretty good job with their F2P model on Hearthstone. The free starter cards were decent. I only ever paid for the solo adventures, but still was able to get all the legendaries through dailies and getting decent at Arena. That said I mostly played during the first two years after release, I've no idea what the game is like now.

@aktivity: Fair point, that is definitely true. I think my problem was that I came into Hearthstone very late. At that point, it seemed daunting to think how expensive it would be to catch up and play through various expansions (though they phase some cards out, right???).

It's interesting to think about how DotA was a Blizzard fan-made thing that Valve sucked up and ran away with
and made their own - and now also it's going to have a card game by way of Richard "not the cat" Garfield.
It'll be fun to see how this turns out.