Artifact Loses 97% Players
Only two months after its debut, Valve's online card game Artifact has lost over 97% players and still declining.
For the past few years, Hearthstone was dominating the ever growing market of online digital collectible card game genre and Artifact has debuted in November 2018 as an answer to the game from developer/publisher Valve Corporation.
Sure, Valve has a history of delivering huge hits like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead franchise that fans still love till date but sadly for their latest release, not even card game players are showing any interest as it is currently facing a concurrent player drop.
RELATED: Steam Top-Selling & Most Played Games 2018
Initially, the game has launched two months ago with a simultaneous players number of 60,740 at that time. By next month on December, it was surpassed by No Man's Sky on Steam and from ever since, that downward trend is showing no sign of stopping.
Seeing an all time low, their playerbase has come down to a drop of 97.5% in just two months after release and ranking at 145 on Steam Charts. Even Valve's first-person puzzle-platform and critically-acclaimed game of 2011, Portal 2 has more players online.
RELATED: Valve Rumored to Develop VR Headset for Half-Life Prequel
Apparently, the DOTA 2 inspired card game is failing to pick up any interest among players and there are a number of reasons for that. The crown-jewel of online card game is following a free-to-play model, whereas Artifact is charging everyone $19.99 only to buy the game.
However, fans who believed in the developer still took part in the alternative model but when it was revealed that you simply cannot get newer cards without spending real money; it sparked a huge wave of complaints within the community.
RELATED: Job Listing Suggests Left 4 Dead 3 in Development?
In the weeks that followed, it became very clear that Valve is not attracting new players to their anticipated online trading card game. Moreover, many angry people bombed the game's Steam page with negative reviews for their shoddy monetization scheme.
The developer tried to do damage control by adding balance and leveling where one could earn new decks by simply playing which was followed by an update that re-balanced some of the overpowered cards but it didn't help to impress their fallen playerbase.
RELATED: Artifact Adds Card Balance and Leveling
When Valve finally decided to return into making video games and roped in world-famous game designer Richard Garfield for the development of DOTA 2 based card game experience, people were genuinely hyped but seems like all of it was for seemingly nothing.
Artifact could have possibly made it if they chose to follow a free-to-play system rather than their widely criticized pay-to-play model on top of the staring fee of $19.99 bucks that no other title of the same genre has asked for ever, turning it into one of the most disappointing releases on Steam.
For the past few years, Hearthstone was dominating the ever growing market of online digital collectible card game genre and Artifact has debuted in November 2018 as an answer to the game from developer/publisher Valve Corporation.
Sure, Valve has a history of delivering huge hits like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead franchise that fans still love till date but sadly for their latest release, not even card game players are showing any interest as it is currently facing a concurrent player drop.
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| Artifact Loses 97% Players |
RELATED: Steam Top-Selling & Most Played Games 2018
Initially, the game has launched two months ago with a simultaneous players number of 60,740 at that time. By next month on December, it was surpassed by No Man's Sky on Steam and from ever since, that downward trend is showing no sign of stopping.
Seeing an all time low, their playerbase has come down to a drop of 97.5% in just two months after release and ranking at 145 on Steam Charts. Even Valve's first-person puzzle-platform and critically-acclaimed game of 2011, Portal 2 has more players online.
RELATED: Valve Rumored to Develop VR Headset for Half-Life Prequel
Apparently, the DOTA 2 inspired card game is failing to pick up any interest among players and there are a number of reasons for that. The crown-jewel of online card game is following a free-to-play model, whereas Artifact is charging everyone $19.99 only to buy the game.
However, fans who believed in the developer still took part in the alternative model but when it was revealed that you simply cannot get newer cards without spending real money; it sparked a huge wave of complaints within the community.
RELATED: Job Listing Suggests Left 4 Dead 3 in Development?
In the weeks that followed, it became very clear that Valve is not attracting new players to their anticipated online trading card game. Moreover, many angry people bombed the game's Steam page with negative reviews for their shoddy monetization scheme.
The developer tried to do damage control by adding balance and leveling where one could earn new decks by simply playing which was followed by an update that re-balanced some of the overpowered cards but it didn't help to impress their fallen playerbase.
RELATED: Artifact Adds Card Balance and Leveling
When Valve finally decided to return into making video games and roped in world-famous game designer Richard Garfield for the development of DOTA 2 based card game experience, people were genuinely hyped but seems like all of it was for seemingly nothing.
Artifact could have possibly made it if they chose to follow a free-to-play system rather than their widely criticized pay-to-play model on top of the staring fee of $19.99 bucks that no other title of the same genre has asked for ever, turning it into one of the most disappointing releases on Steam.
