It seems like in the world of fantasy video games, you are nothing until you get your own digital card game. This might be what Valve was thinking when it decided to create “Artifact,” a “Dota” spinoff that’s actually a card game. The developer announced the new game at this year’s International championships, and while you might have expected that a new way to interact with beloved “Dota 2” heroes would be greeted warmly, it didn’t quite thrill all the fans at Seattle’s KeyArena.

What is ‘Artifact’?

“Artifact” is a card game based on “Dota 2” involving three boards and a selection of characters from Valve’s flagship game, though other details are unknown.

The game was announced just before the final match of Day 2 of TI7 by event host Sean “Day9” Plott.

"It's not Half-Life 3," Plott said, and he insisted that the game was not a re-release or a fine-tuning of an existing game à la “Counter Strike: GO” or “Dota 2.” A short clip was then shown, which ended with the phrase, “Artifact: The Dota Card Game.”

With quite a huge crowd in attendance, their honest reactions to the gameplay teaser showed just how much of a bummer it was to reveal that it is a digital card cash-in on a popular existing product.

Fans were quick to liken “Artifact” to “Hearthstone,” Blizzard’s massive digital card game that generates millions of dollars a month from tens of millions of monthly active users.

In the wake of Blizzard’s success, game developers and publishers started to follow suit, capitalizing on popular titles such as “Runescape,” “The Witcher,” and “Skyrim.”

Elsewhere online, the majority of the reactions consisted of disappointment -- and that's putting it lightly.

Card games are all the rage

Discussions of a card game spinoff will eventually come around to “Hearthstone,” since it paved the way for this trend.

Blizzard’s hit game based on the “World of Warcraft” universe was one of the first to have real success in terms of translating the collectible card game format into a digital service.

The digital card games market is booming, with sales across the genre reaching $1.4 billion – Valve would want to capitalize on that. In-game sales for digital collectible card games will continue to grow this year, according to research firm SuperData, and will vastly outnumber their physical counterparts by a vast number as well. For this reason, Valve’s decision makes a lot of sense.

Check out the teaser for "Artifact" below — the game is expected to launch in 2018.
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