The report comes from Edge magazine, which interviewed Valve’s CEO Gabe Newell. Newell states that Valve has learned a lot from Artifact’s initial release on Steam. Valve is in-turn taking those lessons and is applying them to Artifact 2. “And that’s what [Valve’s] been doing and that’s what they’re getting ready to release.” The only firm statement Newell said about what’s coming is that it will work to “justify its existence” to players.

RELATED: Twitch Sues Users for Streaming Porn, Copyright Movies Under Artifact Directory

Newell isn’t splitting hairs about the Artifact’s release, either. While he does approach the topic as if he was an interested third party and not directly involved with the game’s creation, he makes clear he understands Artifact isn’t what fans wanted. “Artifact was an interesting failure in its first go-round,” is how Newell describes it. Having a CEO openly state one of their games is a failure is an incredible rarity anymore.

Even with his willingness to call Artifact a failure, Newell says it still surprised the team at Valve. “We were surprised. We thought that it was a really strong product.” Newell quickly shifted focus back to the follow-up, however. “We ran an experiment, we got a negative result, and now we need to see if we’ve learned anything from that.” Those who purchased the game likely don’t see it as an experiment, of course.

Unfortunately, Newell doesn’t offer any specific criticism of the original Artifact or plans for how Valve will be changing things. Those things will become public naturally, of course, as Artifact 2.0’s rerelease gets closer.

There are two core aspects of Artifact that Valve could possibly target. There’s Artifact’s monetization and then its gameplay. Artifact’s monetization required players purchase randomized card packs, a decision that went over extremely poorly. A lot of goodwill could be earned by doing what Riot is doing with Legends of Runeterra and only offering cosmetic DLC. As for gameplay, many described Artifact’s 3-lane gameplay as overwhelming. Valve could change it, or it could stick to its guns. The difference could mean success or another failure.

Expect news regarding Artifact’s reboot in the months to come.

Artifact is currently available on PC.

MORE: 10 Awesome Collectible Card Games (That Aren’t Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Source: Edge (via Games Radar)