Instead of 'getting rid of a game that people love for no reason,' Path of Exile 2 will now be a standalone release
When Path of Exile 2 was announced four years ago, it was going to expand on and overtake Path of Exile 1. The original action RPG's campaign was still going to be playable, but PoE's transformation into Path of Exile 2 would add in a new campaign and alter the endgame—sort of like how Overwatch 2 replaced Overwatch. Well, plans change.
During this year'sExileCon keynote, developer Grinding Gear Games revealed that it has changed its mind, and Path of Exile 2 will now be a separate game that runs in its own client.
«PoE2's scope has continued to grow and grow» since that 2019 announcement, said Grinding Gear Games co-founder Jonathan Rogers. The sequel so far adds six new classes, 36 ascendancy classes, 600 new monsters, 100 bosses, 240 active skills, 1,500 passive skills, new mechanics (a dodge roll with no cooldown got one of the biggest applauses), and more.
«This thing is just freaking huge,» said Rogers. «There was a point where we realized that our plan to replace PoE1 with PoE2 would essentially be getting rid of a game that people love for no real reason. So we made a decision: Path of Exile 1 and 2 will be separate, with their own mechanics, balance, endgames, and leagues.»
The two games won't be totally isolated from each other, though. Rogers added that in-game purchases will be available in both games, except where incompatible, and promised that this will be the case for as long as the games exist.
«Everything you have ever purchased or will purchase in the future will be usable in both games unless it's hyper-specific to the content of one of them,» Rogers said. «You can't transform into a bear in PoE1, so a reskin of your bear form isn't going to work. But you absolutely can equip the awesome sword skin
Read more on pcgamer.com
