Valve was due to launch a semi-public beta for its Dota-themed card game Artifact later this month, but it now appears fans will have to wait until November 19—just nine days before the November 28 full release date—for their first look.
The date first surfaced when Wykrhm Reddy, known to be an internal tester of Valve games, tweeted out this image:
Other fans signed up for the beta have since shared screenshots of emails, which appear to be from Valve, confirming the November 19 date. You can see one at the top of this Reddit thread and one below, which usert tyst_ shared in the same thread. And if you read the comments, you'll find lots of fans who are annoyed they won't get as much time with the game pre-release as initially promised.
Valve has not put out any announcement, and this morning, the game's official Twitter account still said that the beta was coming in October (since this article was originally published, the bio has been updated to remove any mention of the beta). I have reached out to Valve for comment and will update this article when I get a response.
Valve has given beta keys to fans that attended PAX West and Dota 2's The International 2018, as well as some people that follow the game's social media accounts. It's currently in closed beta, with access restricted to Dota scenesters and pros from other CCGs.
Judging by Tim's time with it, Artifact is set to be an ultra-competitive game with a high skill ceiling and lots of things happening all at once. You can find out more in Jody's analysis of how it will change the card game scene.
Update: I initially wrote that next month's beta would be an open beta, which isn't correct: members of the public will be able to take part, but only if they've received a beta key, which have been handed out at industry events or via the game's social media accounts.
Also, as mentioned above, the game's Twitter account's bio was changed after this article was published to remove all mention of the beta.