Path of Exile is the biggest competitor to Diablo and has been for many years. Right now, the team is working on the sequel and is, of course, keeping an eye on Diablo 4. In the interview, however, the boss says: They haven’t really been able to draw any new insights from it; they already knew the most important points beforehand.
This is the state of affairs with Path of Exile:
- The new Necropolis league for Path of Exile from March caused a peak of over 187,000 players on Steam. Currently, up to 13,000 players are playing simultaneously (via steamcharts).
- However, the still-running Path of Exile has a big problem, according to the boss: It’s simply too old.
- The successor has been in development for several years. Path of Exile 2 is supposed to start in beta at the end of 2024 and be almost finished by then.
This is what the boss says: At the Summer Game Fest, game director Jonathan Rogers discussed the development of Path of Exile 2 in an interview with VG247. One topic was, among other things, what the team was able to learn from Diablo 4.
Currently, Diablo 4 is in an extremely good state thanks to Season 4 and is receiving massive praise. Even in the middle of the season, it is setting new records on Steam. However, Rogers says they weren’t able to learn much from Blizzard:
More than anything, we were able to confirm decisions we had already trusted. We were always skeptical about open worlds in video games. I know they can work in certain aspects, but in an action RPG in particular, I’m not a fan. I always believed that it couldn’t work, and I never loved that aspect in Diablo 4.
I think dungeons are much better than an open world, and the open world holds that back a bit. So, that solidified my opinion.
Everything one could have learned was already known and done beforehand, according to Rogers. For example, the dodge roll; Path of Exile had already planned that before Diablo 4 even released: ‘That’s simply a modern action game thing.’
In general, they don’t want to copy anything but rather look at what is good and consider that the new standard that players now expect.
“Hope players can play without a subscription”
In a second part of the interview on VG247, Rogers further discusses the development of Path of Exile 2 and the release on PlayStation and Xbox. The question arose whether one needs a PS Plus subscription since it is a service game.
Rogers says: ‘That is not our hope.’ Currently, it is still announced that PS Plus is necessary, but they want to deviate from that as soon as possible.
The developers announced Path of Exile 2 in the new trailer with crossplay and cross-progression, but there are some difficulties that still need to be ironed out – at least regarding in-game purchases.
In the interview, it is stated: ‘In general, there will be no issues between PoE 1 and PoE 2 on the same platform […] but with cross-platform monetization, it’s like a minefield. We are doing our best.’
Both Path of Exile and Diablo have major content coming in 2024. Path of Exile 2 is the ARPG that thousands of fans have been waiting for for years. Diablo 4 will receive its first expansion with Vessel of Hatred later this year. If you don’t know what to play from these, here’s a little help: Diablo 4, Path of Exile, Last Epoch – Which action RPG should I play?
