Valve’s upcoming digital collectible card game Artifact will have a beta in October, co-founder Gabe Newell announced Monday on stage at The International 2018, the annual Dota 2 e-sports championship.
At the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada on Monday, Newell said that everyone attending The International 2018 will get a free copy of Artifact and beta access when it rolls out sometime in October, provided they linked their tickets to their Steam accounts.
The Artifact game Twitter account reiterated the announcement later and added that the game keys will be available at PAX West in Seattle, USA from Friday, August 31 to Monday, September 3 would also grant beta access. That’s where Artifact will be playable for the first time, with players competing in a tournament for merchandise while all attendees receive keys for two free copies.
Based on the characters and lore of Dota 2, Artifact was designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. It will have three separate playing boards called lanes, drawing on the concept used in Dota 2. Unlike other digital collectible card games, including the massively popular Hearthstone from Blizzard, Artifact will not be free-to-play.
Artifact is set to release November 28 on Windows, macOS and Linux, with a version for Android and iOS following later in 2019.
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