Richard Garfield, designer of Artifact, has left Valve

I'm not entirely sure if this means they're giving up on Artifact entirely, but it sure doesn't sound great. I guess he was technically a contractor and not an actual Valve employee, but it sure seems weird to put him to pasture now that the game only has a couple hundred active players.

"We weren't surprised by the layoff considering how rocky the launch was," Garfield said, "the team was enthusiastic about the game and were confident that they had a good product but it became clear it wasn't going to be easy to get the game to where we wanted it."

Speaking of his own departure from Valve, Garfield said it "makes sense".

"... now that the game is out there time is more critical, so more voices within the team that you have to navigate may not be as good as making less considered decisions faster."

That sounds a lot like "I disagreed with the direction Valve wanted to go in and they decided to get rid of me." I have to assume they are working hard to rejigger the game as a full free-to-play experience, but it might also be true that they're just going to let it fade into Bolivian. Guess we'll find out if they just don't do anything in the next few months!

I'm unsure if they're going to continue supporting the game or count it as their first and only loss. Nonetheless, I hope they start something else up by acquiring Dota Auto Chess.

They (3 donkeys) were hired mostly on name recognition anyways. Garfield might've created the most successful card game 25 years ago, but since then his ventures hasn't exactly been a string of home-runs. When it turned out that having them as a influential advisors lead to yet another dud project it only makes sense for Valve to sober up and move on to a different design direction.

I hope they somehow fix it. But man its just not a good game. I was so excited for it. Watched the subreddit every day for news. And when I finally got to play it I knew instantly it wasnt a good game. Its just boring. I feel like its fixable but will take a lot of work to the point of the game barely even resembling current artifact.

Valve is one of those companies that makes a bucket loads of money, but has really been directionless by lacking true leadership for years. They have one primary income source - STEAM. This non-diversified revenue stream will catch up to them eventually, you na only plaster over problems with gobs of money for a short while. The risk is not Valve going out of business; but rather, a company that makes ever decreasing revenue while still making a profit. Meaning a long, slow swirl down the drain until some change in market pulls the stopper as they rush down the sewer faster than anyone can recover the company.

I think Gabe should make his role just "owner", and then find a new President and new COO to take on leadership roles. Gabe is not doing a good job and the COO Scott Lynch has been overdue to move-on to another company after 20 years.