The problem with Artifact is multifaceted:
- Lack of transparency from Valve, unlike the HS team and Wizards of the Coast.
- High barrier to entry in relation to competitors.
- Released late to the market and close to a brand new Hearthstone set.
- Gameplay issues.
- No progression or free packs at launch.
I put in about 15 hours before I got bored of the base set and the games that dragged on for way too long. I found myself watching the clock, hoping for the match to end. This is coming from a 6+ year Magic player.
My matches lately go for about 20 minutes. I don't think that's too long honestly. I know when I first started playing they were 30 minutes, maybe it's just because I understood more what I was doing and knew what to do quicker, and so did my opponents, but yeah I don't think the length is as much of an issue now. I think the gameplay is fine, and honestly one of my favorite CCGs. It is a higher barrier, but once you play some games you get used to it, and slowly start learning more advanced stuff as you play. It does NOT require a Dota-level of time to learn it though.
The bolded I think are definitely all problems the game has, but I'd also add to that the issue of the game modes not being clear when trying to sell people on the game. The way it is right now, and was at launch, makes people think the only way to play matchmaking requires tickets, when that's not true at all. I don't think Valve's messaging on how that actually worked was clear and I think that was a big problem.
If there's any hope of turning it around, it's going to be an extremely uphill battle at this point. Those numbers are brutal. Oddly enough though, I have no trouble finding a match still, and I played last night. My queue times have always been less than a minute, which is ironic because for some reason my queues in Dota 2 have been like 4 minutes or more lately.
I think their options are either give up or go free-to-play, and be more clear on how the game modes actually work. I really hope they choose the latter, I think they could potentially salvage this. It's a Valve game after all, even their worst games don't stay unnoticed.