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Dota 2 card game Artifact set for November launch

Dota 2 card game Artifact set for November launch

Yes, you read that right - Valve is releasing a game this year.

The firm's digital card title Artifact is set to launch on November 28th on Steam with a $20 price point.

Valve is pretty late to the digital card game genre - one that research firm SuperData pegs as being worth $1.3bn in 2017 alone. But the firm was also relatively late to the MOBA genre with its own Dota 2 and that is now one of the biggest games in the world. All of which is to say, never rule out Valve.

Artifact is the first of many new titles coming from Valve. Following the launch of Dota 2 back in 2013, the Washington-based PC games giant started to focus more of its energy on hardware, namely the Steam Machines, Steam Link, Steam Controller and the first Steam VR headset, HTC's Vive.

This is something that chief Gabe Newell positioned as a positive to media who visited Valve in March of this year, saying that the firm is now better equipped to make better games now it has more of an understanding of hardware. The firm also recently snapped up Firewatch maker Campo Santo - another indication of its commitment to making and releasing games.

No doubt Valve has some pretty big esports ambitions for Artifact. Dota 2 is one of the biggest pro-gaming IP in the world, with its headline event - The International - drawing in a ridiculously huge prize pool. Last year's tournament prize pot was in excess of $23.6m. Artifact was announced during this event

Analysts speaking to PCGamesInsider.biz last year said that Artifact could broaden the appeal of Dota and that Valve should consider a mobile version to this end.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.