Valve's digital card game Artifact "reboot" is so large, it's internally being called Artifact 2, says Gabe Newell

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Gabe Newell says Valve was "surprised" by digital card game Artifact's failure, but says the team isn't calling it quits just yet

An image of Artifact
(Image credit: Valve)

Valve was "surprised" by Artifact's failure, says Gabe Newell, speaking exclusively in the new issue of Edge magazine, who has confirmed that the team is still working on a "larger reboot" of its critically lambasted Steam trading card game. 

As part of Edge Magazine's all-access trip to Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington, the studio's founder and CEO looked back on the failures of its 2018 card game, and how it plans to respond to its first major flop. 

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(Image credit: Future)

This feature first appeared in Edge Magazine. If you want more great long-form games journalism like this every month, delivered straight to your tablet or phone, you can get five issues for $5 / £5 while this amazing offer lasts. 

“Artifact was an interesting failure in its first go-round." Newell tells Edge, “We were surprised. We thought that it was a really strong product.” 

“We ran an experiment, we got a negative result, and now we need to see if we’ve learned anything from that, so let’s try again,” he says. “And that’s what [the Artifact team] have been doing and that’s what they’re getting ready to release. Based on the reaction to it, what was wrong with the product? How did we get there? Let’s fix those things and take another run at it.” 

Edge reports that, internally, the follow-up to Artifact is being referred to as Artifact 2, though it's unclear if this will be a full blown sequel, a No Man's Sky-style comeback, or something else entirely, but Newell stresses that Valve has "to do a larger reboot in order to justify its existence to customers and to markets."

Valve is days away from the release of its virtual reality Half-Life prequel, Half-Life: Alyx, and you can read all about that - as well as Newell's thoughts on the Epic Game Store and Steam Machines - in the latest issue of Edge Magazine, on sale Thursday 26th March in stores, with an early digital release on Monday 23rd March. 

You can subscribe to Edge magazine for 5 issues for $5 / £5 on tablet / phone, and have the full 34-page Valve special edition as your first issue.

Alex Avard
Alex Avard

Alex is a former Features Writer at GamesRadar, which once made him responsible for gracing the internet with as many of my words as possible, including reviews, previews, interviews, and more. Lucky internet!