Some of you might remember Valve’s attempt to create an awesome trading card game called Artifact. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t that awesome. While the mechanics of the game based on the popular DOTA 2 franchise were quite good, the game received a lot of negative feedback due to a very high price, big RNG factor, and a significant lack of players playing the game. Artifact died and its Twitch section became a popular place to stream hentai… Until Valve pledged to fix the game and release Artifact 2.0.

According to Valve, that time is already near as the company is gearing towards Artifact 2.0 beta test. According to the news, you will be able to sign up for beta 2.0 sometime next week.

Here’s a snippet from the post on game’s Steam page:

“We are happy to announce that we are moving to the next phase of the Beta!

The Beta for the original game started too late and was too short. We’ve decided to approach things a bit differently this time around by gradually inviting people to join us while we are still “Under Construction”.

Here’s the updated road-map:

  • Test boring stuff
  • Trickle out invites, starting with players of the original release <- We are here
  • Work on the Beta, eventually transitioning to an open beta
  • Leave Beta

We will be sending an email to all players with the original game on their Steam Account (it doesn’t need to be installed). Emails will appear by NEXT WEEK. Follow the instructions in the email to sign up for the Beta.

We will use a lottery system to invite people who have opted in. Access to the Beta will remain closed until we’ve worked through the signups from players of the original. Communication about the game will remain open for the duration of the Beta.”

If you were wondering what does “boring stuff” means, there’s a short explanation letter. According to the Artifact 2.0 FAQ, Valve hopes to test Gameplay, Balance, Hero Identity, Color Identity, Social Features, Card Unlocks, Ranked Play, Replays, Spectating, and the Campaign…. or in other words – everything that was wrong with their game last time around.