Valve just announced a new game! It’s a card game based on Dota 2. The internet is confused and upset by this.
Valve hasn’t stopped making games, but sometimes it sure feels like it. Their last release was The Lab, a VR collection of Portal mini games in 2016, and prior to that their last major releases were Counter-Strike Online 2 and Dota 2 in 2013. Even if you don’t know anything about Valve, you’ve probably run into the persistent joke about the continued non-existence of Half Life 3. The lack of releases has made some fans feel like Valve is just resting on their laurels, or a pile of money so large that new game releases just aren’t necessary anymore. So when Valve finally announced their new game, Artifact, and revealed it was a card game based on an existing game, the internet got a bit… testy. After the overwhelming success of Blizzard’s Hearthstone, there are a lot of card games coming out, seemingly chasing after the latest fad. Hence the most upvoted comment on the teaser trailer on YouTube:
Elsewhere online, you can’t deny that the majority of the reaction is well… disappointment is putting it lightly.
Not everyone is upset, though. Some people see ways that Valve can make Artifact interesting, even if they don’t have much hope, while others are truly excited:
Given that all we’ve seen of the game is teaser trailer that shows off a bunch of triangular gems, Valve could still turn this around. Or, maybe people will still be bitter this isn’t Half Life 3. Yeah, the latter sounds more likely.