The head of Path of Exile 2 addressed the players in a video message, informing them that the developers have broken their biggest promise regarding Path of Exile. Now the community is furious.
What was that promise? Originally, Path of Exile 2 was supposed to be an update for Path of Exile, much like what happened with Overwatch and its “successor” Overwatch 2. However, in the middle of development, the developers decided to make PoE2 a standalone game because the differences would simply be too significant.
With the announcement of Path of Exile 2 as a standalone game, the devs also promised that the first part would continue to be developed without restrictions. In an interview with MeinMMO, head Jonathan Rogers reiterated this promise and even added that PoE1 would receive updates and new content as long as it has players.
This big promise has now been broken by the developers, as Jonathan Rogers admits.
Do you already know this NPC from Path of Exile 2?
Broken Promises
What about the development of PoE1? In a video message on YouTube, Game Director Jonathan Rogers now reaches out to the players. In it, he explains that he has decided to pull the developers who were supposed to be working on Path of Exile 1 in the summer of 2024 to work on PoE2. Early Access was approaching, and the game still had many issues.
Even after the launch of PoE2, there was much to be done; besides balance changes, there were many technical fixes needed to make the ARPG more playable.
Jonathan Rogers further explains in the video that even after the Christmas break, there was still no end in sight to the important work, and he simply could not send the PoE1 developers back. As a result, the start of the new season and the associated update for the predecessor, which was planned for February, became unattainable.
According to the head, nothing will change in this situation for the time being. He will not send the employees back to PoE1 until the major update for Path of Exile 2, Version 0.2.0, which could also mean a new season, is released.
Even a few weeks after the release of the new version, the devs will have to manage PoE2 before they can even start working on a new PoE1 season.
The next update for Path of Exile 1 will likely take months and could therefore mean the longest period without updates for the ARPG. In the meantime, about 7 months have already passed without innovations.
How is the community reacting to the announcement? Players are furious. For the community, the promise of simultaneous development that would not interfere with each other was a key aspect of supporting the devs in the past development years of PoE2.
They feel betrayed, deceived, and cheated by the developers. User milkoso88 vents on Reddit: “I just can’t believe that GGG has betrayed us like this. We have bought our downfall with supporter packs.” User Echo_Forward also asks on Reddit: “Can I return their stupid supporter pack?”
Players like LordMalvore cannot understand on Reddit why the developers do not even have time for a smaller update: “Just give us a legacy league… Based on what we’ve heard from our side, it’s not hard for them to pack a few league mechanics into a provisional league. I just want to play PoE with an econ reset, and if I can also get back Scourge, Affliction, Sentinel [Editor’s note: leagues/seasons from PoE1], etc., that would be good enough for me for now.”
Even on YouTube, the mood is not better. User @thi3n858 writes: “The real PoE killer wasn’t Diablo 4 or Last Epoch… it was PoE 2 all along.”
Many of the other comments are quotes from Path of Exile that describe the situation. For example, user @Jalgie44 writes: “A contender can afford to make promises. An emperor must keep those promises.” Or the comment from @MikotoJinba: “For those who ascend too quickly, the fall is inevitable.”
For the gamers, it seems that the developers have even shared quotes in the game that indicate what fate awaits their own ARPG. Meanwhile, things are not going particularly well in Path of Exile 2 either. Especially the new players are also disappointed here due to the developers: Path of Exile 2 is driving away its new players due to a missing feature
