Game designers Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias, who were fired from Valve, explained why, in their opinion, Artifact did not find its audience. One of the reasons was expected to be the monetization model chosen by Valve.
Garfield and Elias participated in the development of the Artifact CCI, released in November 2018. The game was criticized primarily for the monetization system and forcing players to donate. Her online very quickly dropped from 60 thousand people to several hundred. Valve itself admitted the failure of the game in March of this year, and two weeks before that dismissed the above-mentioned game designers and a number of other employees.
In an interview for Win.gg Garfield and Elias named the three main problems of Artifact:
- unsuccessful monetization model;
- lack of social tools and short-term goals for the player (achievements, missions, etc.);
- review-bombing, which occurred due to the combination of the first two reasons.
Many players believe that the first named reason is the main drawback of Artifact. The game simply did not give the opportunity to collect a collection of cards without additional financial injections. Players dubbed a similar monetization system in KKI: “Pay for everything you do.”
Nevertheless, both Garfield and Elias refused to consider Artifact a pay-to-win title. They stated that buying cards for real money does not make a player in Artifact or other KKI invincible — and this is an indispensable condition of pay-and-win games.
I can copy someone else's (first-class) deck, but that doesn't make me a first-class player. I can throw away thousands of dollars on golf clubs, but that won't make me a champion in this sport.
Three Donkeys Studio game designer, former Artifact developer
According to Garfield, a perfectly matched deck in Artifact costs less than similar ones in Magic: The Gathering (which Garfield himself developed) and Heartstone. However, he admitted that the need to pay for cards could annoy many players, because Artifact is not a free—play title. Recall that it was distributed for 1400 rubles.
In March, Valve promised to deal with the fundamental problems of Artifact and, in fact, to remake the game. Since then, the company has been silent about the status of the project. Garfield and Elias, according to them, are not in contact with the current Artifact team and the future of the title is unknown to them.
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