The head of Path of Exile, Chris Wilson, sees it as a good thing that Diablo 4 is coming from Blizzard. He even hopes for a collaboration with Blizzard on the season launches. Wilson believes that every player of Path of Exile will likely buy Diablo 4, and he hopes that Diablo 4 players will also develop an interest in Path of Exile.
This is the situation: We do not yet know a release date, but Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4 will likely compete with each other starting around 2021:
- Path of Exile was originally launched as an alternative to Diablo 3, aiming to be darker and more complex. Path of Exile has evolved into a very successful game over 6 years with a “hardcore” following.
- Diablo 4 is now the successor to Diablo 3 from Blizzard – it is also intended to be darker.
Both games compete for similar players. During the presentation of Path of Exile 2, a major expansion, Grinding Gear Games has now thrown some jabs at Blizzard. But there is also another side.
Blizzard will invest a lot of money in Diablo 4 – This is good for Path of Exile
This is how Path of Exile sees the competition: The head of Grinding Gear Games, Chris Wilson, remains humble in an interview with PC Gamer. He says:
“Path of Exile is successful and earns good money, but we do not even remotely make Blizzard money. Diablo 3 probably earned more in its first week than our company will ever earn. A lot of people had a lot of fun with Diablo 3 – regardless of what hardcore fans and our fans think about it.”
But Wilson does not see it as an “either-or”:
“Diablo 4 looks like a full-price title, and we are free-to-play. Blizzard will spend a lot of money to promote Diablo 4, and that is great for the genre. This means that if players like Diablo 4, they can also play Path of Exile because it costs nothing.”
Every one of our players will likely buy Diablo 4
Wilson even hopes for some sort of collaboration with Blizzard. Because both games have leagues. These could be timed so that there is something to do in both games.
Path of Exile is designed to be played a lot at the start of a league and then switch to other games:
“We are not talking to Blizzard about season launches, but if both companies were clever, they would set it up so that the launch times work well for both player groups.”
Wilson believes that likely every player of Path of Exile will buy Diablo 4 and have fun with it. That’s great.
He hopes that many players from Diablo 4 will also try Path of Exile.
The “Rising Tide” Theory
What it’s about: Wilson advocates the “rising tide” theory, which lifts all ships: A lighthouse game brings new gamers into the genre, expands the target audience, and ultimately everyone benefits.
Many studio heads had also said this about Fortnite: It would bring many people to gaming, who would then turn to other games. This has proven to be somewhat true – many publishers struggled in the aftermath because Fortnite absorbed players.
The head of Trion Worlds stated in 2014, his game “Defiance” would benefit from the success of Destiny. His company no longer exists.
In Path of Exile, the market is smaller than in shooters. Path of Exile is already a popular and established game – here the theory could really hold. In Warframe, a similar effect could be observed: They actually could benefit long-term from the boom of the genre through Destiny due to good work.
Ultimately, Path of Exile has been benefiting from Diablo 3 in a certain way for years.
