You may “really feel assured” Path of Exile 1 will proceed to thrive alongside PoE 2, however do not count on extra new tasks from GGG

Ken coolly serves the most well liked information tales and has performed, we predict, each sport ever made.

Printed: November 8, 2026

Path of Exile is not slowing down. The unique sport is constant on the similar tempo it all the time was, regardless of the actual fact its sequel has been in early entry for 2 years and is getting ready to totally launch into 1.0 this December. Developer Grinding Gear Video games is not merely supporting its older instalment out of affection, although that is definitely a part of the deal – it is actively labored to maintain PoE 1 a viable a part of the enterprise mannequin. At Exilecon, I joined a roundtable with Sport Administrators Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts to debate the 2 video games coexisting, optimizing their tech, and whether or not we may see a 3rd pillar added to the combination ultimately.

Supporting the primary Path of Exile is easy maths. “For one factor, it is nonetheless a very fashionable sport,” Rogers notes. “It nonetheless will get into the highest three of Steam with each launch, so there’s truly no motive that we might ever wish to kill it whereas it is nonetheless so widespread. Even when it was one-third the dimensions that it’s now, that will nonetheless be an extremely widespread, nice sport to be supporting. So there’s completely no motive for us to kill PoE 1.” In actual fact, he goes one step additional, explaining that GGG “engineered a state of affairs the place gamers can really feel assured that Path of Exile 1 will nonetheless be supported.”

Whereas the 2 RPGs do not instantly work together, there may be one huge shared factor – their microtransactions. PoE 2’s 1.0 launch will see it turn into free to play like its predecessor, and whereas there are nonetheless some older designs to port over, all of your paid cosmetics (together with any further stash tabs you purchase) can be found in each video games. “I believe a number of firms put themselves in a state of affairs the place they don’t seem to be financially incentivized to help their outdated video games – right here we’re, on function, going to ensure that we’re, in order that now we have a motive to do that. When the gamers see that, they see, ‘Okay, we should always preserve taking part in this.'”

Rogers can “see no motive why Path of Exile 1 must die.” He remarks that the participant numbers league to league are “mainly flat, and that is high-quality by us,” however factors out that this easy stat would not inform the complete story. “One fascinating factor about that’s that you simply would possibly suppose that it is the similar gamers coming again each league, however it truly is not. Solely a couple of third of the gamers in every league got here from the earlier league – what they really come from is the league earlier than that, or the league earlier than that.”

Primarily, a big rely of PoE gamers are solely taking part in “one out of each three leagues on common.” Now that the sport has such a longtime viewers and long-running historical past, GGG is “completely high-quality” with that final result. “If the actual factor we introduced tickles your fancy, you play it, in any other case you will not. The sport has such an extended historical past, there’s an enormous participant base,” Rogers says, “and we’re joyful to help that for so long as they wish to play.”

Path of Exile 2’s getting a slight set up measurement improve for 1.0, however that is been largely mitigated by optimization instruments which have lowered the capability of the prevailing sport to compensate considerably for all the brand new stuff being added. “I do not suppose it should increase in measurement too quick now, as a result of we have got this batch of content material that is been made over the past eight years, and it is lastly all in,” Rogers theorizes. He would not count on it will be happening way more in measurement both, nevertheless.

Lots of the current optimization (a roughly 30GB saving, albeit one counteracted by 40GB of latest additions) comes from a brand new instrument GGG designed to determine precisely what elements of all of the fashions have to look the very best, given that you simply all the time play from a fixed-camera perspective. Now that is performed, future reductions can be more durable. “In an effort to optimize extra, I believe we would have to begin making sacrifices by way of high quality,” Rogers ponders.

There might be another optimization potential, however “it is getting a bit skinny on the bottom now.” He means that one attainable possibility can be to permit these gamers who solely desire a sure high quality setting to obtain fewer textures. “If you choose medium textures, you have successfully obtained like 60 GB of the sport that you simply’re not even utilizing,” he explains. “I used to be a bit reluctant to implement this, as a result of… it is form of a ache within the arse,” he laughs. “Possibly someday we’ll try this to form of ease that up a bit.”

With PoE 2 virtually out, I get the impression that the staff could be very able to return to its acquainted seasonal cadence for the foreseeable future. A possible Path of Exile 3, then, just isn’t one thing Rogers would take into account “for a really very long time.” He notes that the choice to start work on PoE 2 eight years in the past was resulting from inner uncertainty among the many studio “about whether or not PoE 1 was going to continue to grow or not.”

GGG was “actually nervous that we have been going to have a ballistic trajectory of going up and happening once more [with PoE 1], which ended up probably not being the case.” Rogers says it’d take Path of Exile 2 feeling prefer it had reached a plateau earlier than the staff would even take into account starting to consider beginning work on PoE 3. “It would be eternally away,” Roberts provides.

What concerning the long-dormant PoE Cellular? “The code, the engine, nonetheless compiles for cellular,” Rogers reveals, however he says, “It hasn’t been in growth for some time as a result of in some unspecified time in the future we simply realized that we truly can’t maintain three video games on the similar time.” He says it’d take “a restoration interval no less than earlier than we begin considering, ‘Hey, can we wish to take this significantly once more?'”

The opposite widespread angle we have seen many video games take these days is a film or present adaptation, so would GGG take into account one thing comparable for PoE? “It isn’t my factor,” Rogers responds, “I am not going to say by no means, however it’s not one thing I might push for.” Roberts expresses much more wariness: “I’ve seen so many good sport titles get ruined,” he laughs.

Do not maintain your breath for a sudden shock addition to the PoE household, then. With Path of Exile 3.30 on the best way in lower than every week on Friday November 13, and PoE 2’s 1.0 launch arriving a month in a while Friday December 11, nevertheless, I believe we’ll be getting greater than sufficient ARPG goodness to maintain us glad within the months and years to return.

Hold scrolling for subsequent article