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Artifact 2.0 Beta Discontinued and Game Made Free

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(Image credit: Valve)

After a year of private beta testing, development of Artifact 2.0 has come to a close.

The closed beta began with signups last May after being announced a year ago, promising a reboot to the Dota 2 card game after it was released in late 2018 to mixed reviews and an active player count below what was expected.

However, Valve announced in a community post that development of Artifact 2.0 will cease.

The post says that after about a year and a half since the current Artifact team began work on a reboot in earnest, we haven't managed to get the active player numbers to a level that justifies further development at this time.

Because of the lack of players, they made the tough decision to stop development on the Artifact 2.0 Beta.

There's a silver lining, though: the developers are opening both games up to make them available for free to everyone.

As such, the team has released both Artifact Classic and the last iteration of the 2.0 beta, now called Artifact Foundry for free on Steam.

The final version of Artifact Classic is a sort of Creative mode with all players having access to every card. Previous patrons will receive special collector's edition cards, which can be traded.

Meanwhile, the final version of Artifact Foundry includes a card progression system without a marketplace.

The team provides a comparison between the two games on a Steam page.