It seems that Valve's latest foray into the digital trading card game space is continuing to be an unsuccessful endeavor for the video game giant. Initially hit by player complaints about its monetization model, Valve's "Artifact" continues to have a dwindling player base just a few weeks after release. But gamers who stay loyal to "Artifact" may now have even better reasons to stick around after the brunt of the player exodus.
According to VPEsports, "Artifact" cards are at their lowest price since the game's launch. The publication notes that while some "Artifact" cards have still retained their value, a significant number of the meta-relevant cards have had large price drops.
Axe, one of the most expensive cards being sold in the Steam market - at $15 a piece - during "Artifact's" player peak has dropped to a value of $9. VPEsports mentions the trend that other popular "Artifact" cards such as Tinker, Lich, Horn of the Alpha, and Kanna have dropped in price by at least half of their original values.
The publication notes that the lowering prices in the "Artifact" market could be related to the rate at which Valve's digital card game has been losing players. According to Steam Charts, "Artifact" now currently has an average of 13 thousand players on average as of the time of this publication.
The "Artifact" player drop rate is almost 80 percent considering that the game's player peak since launch was at 60 thousand players online. Steamdb reports a similar set of numbers for "Artifact" current users with simply a small variation between the numbers being reported by the two websites.
VPEsports notes that the lack of player-growth for "Artifact" may be related to the fact that the game currently has no way of acquiring in-game content beyond the starter package aside from utilizing the card market. Considering the $20 initial purchase with the caveat that future competitive advantage must be bought despite "Artifact's" supposedly fairer exchange rates for content, it seems gamers are still not comfortable with a fully digital trading card game modeled after the monetization schemes of physical card games such as "Magic: The Gathering."
VPEsports keeps "Artifact's" current player and market situation positive by pointing out that new players have an opportunity presented to them by this period in the game's lifetime. "Artifact" players interested in exploring the game's constructed deck-building game mode can now purchase the cards they need at a much cheaper cost compared to the cost of constructing a deck during the "Artifact" initial release.
