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Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile 2 launched in early access to an overwhelming success. With an all-time peak of 578,000 concurrent players just on Steam, the game’s launch hype was a massive surprise for the game’s developers.
Speaking to Eurogamer, game director Jonathan Rogers described the game as “100% a success”, but it’s huge popularity means the studio can’t treat the ARPG as a typical early access game.
Path of Exile 2 must be treated as a released game
During the interview, Rogers explained that huge changes, including “nerfing stuff that needed to be nerfed”, would cause mass outrage amongst players. Despite the game’s early access nature, and the experimentation that comes with that, fans are already attached to specific builds that could change.
“We immediately ran into the situation we would normally expect in the full released game, which is a bunch of players are like, ‘oh you’re breaking my build’, so we had to realise, okay, we have to treat this like it’s a released game in this regard and be a bit more careful,” the game director said.
“Whenever you’ve got players, it derails what your plans are.”
PATH OF EXILE 2 DIRECTOR JONATHAN ROGERS
This has led Grinding Gear Games to treat Path of Exile 2 less like an early access game and more like a live-service title. Experimentation still happens, but it’s less of a focus. Instead, the focus is simply on pushing the game forwards with a push towards better suiting endgame players who stay even after finishing seasonal content.
“Whenever you’ve got players, it derails what your plans are, and it has to,” the director said. “It’s good that it does because it forces you immediately to be responding to what the game needs, which now becomes very obvious because you’ve got actual players playing it.”
While player counts have drastically dropped since its huge launch, Rogers is confident the game will skyrocket back up on the game’s full release. Even with drastically reduced player counts since the early access release, Path of Exile 2 is still doing well, and it’s clear the team is dedicated to making it the best ARPG possible.
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