{"id":1367863,"date":"2025-10-23T20:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/VMEMbTLoDGrQqm9rVvZfwe"},"modified":"2025-10-23T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:06:08","slug":"path-of-exile-2-director-says-he-would-be-beyond-shocked-if-it-didnt-come-out-in-2026-we-never-intended-to-be-in-early-access-this-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/path-of-exile-2-director-says-he-would-be-beyond-shocked-if-it-didnt-come-out-in-2026-we-never-intended-to-be-in-early-access-this-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Path of Exile 2 director says he would be &#8216;beyond shocked&#8217; if it didn&#8217;t come out in 2026: &#8216;We never intended to be in early access this long&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>The Path of Exile 2 <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2694490\/Path_of_Exile_2\/\">Steam page<\/a> hasn&#8217;t aged well since its early access release late last year. At the time, developer Grinding Gear Games wrote that it expected it to be finished in six months. It&#8217;s almost been an entire year since then and the promised list of features isn&#8217;t all here yet.<\/p>\n<p>Even its game director, Jonathan Rogers, knew it wouldn&#8217;t make that deadline a few months before it hit, although speaking to <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/path-of-exile-2-director-says-it-may-not-leave-early-access-in-2025-i-want-to-get-it-done-this-year-but-well-see-how-things-go\/\">PC Gamer<\/a> in March he said the team was &#8220;still broadly on track,&#8221; and that he wanted to have it done this year. And then in August, after some nasty DDoS attacks on the PoE 2 servers, he told <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/no-path-of-exile-2-10-release-this-year-as-ddos-attacks-blamed-for-server-issues-and-huge-new-update-revealed\">Eurogamer<\/a> that it probably wasn&#8217;t going to make it after all.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re in October now and I also don&#8217;t think GGG is going to suddenly pull two more campaign acts, five more classes, and tons of new skills out of a hat before the end of the year. I&#8217;m not even sure it&#8217;s going to be able to do that before the end of next year.<\/p>\n<p>But co-director Mark Roberts said in a recent interview with PC Gamer that he will be &#8220;very, very surprised if it isn&#8217;t fully released in 2026,&#8221; emphasizing that he would be &#8220;beyond, beyond shocked,&#8221; if that doesn&#8217;t happen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t ever really say with any certainty because there are just so many variables that keep changing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It certainly is the case that we never intended to be in early access this long. So already we&#8217;re kind of like, OK we need to get there, we need to push, we need to get to this released.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Roberts admits that GGG isn&#8217;t a &#8220;long-term planning company,&#8221; and attributes the delay to a number of unexpected circumstances, like the DDoS attacks and the cleanup following the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/path-of-exile-2s-nerf-happy-update-has-the-playerbase-revolting-review-bombing-their-baby-and-scorning-the-developers-promises-like-reading-a-blizzard-post-on-fixing-diablo-4\/\">disastrous Dawn of the Hunt update<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2559px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.23%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"GhcU6eEoccxLWN6HduB4Sj\" name=\"PoE 2 endgame Citadel\" alt=\"PoE2 Dawn of the Hunt endgame - The overworld map for the Citadel mode.\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/path-of-exile-2-director-says-he-would-be-beyond-shocked-if-it-didnt-come-out-in-2026-we-never-intended-to-be-in-early-access-this-long.png\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"1\" width=\"2559\" height=\"1439\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"expandable\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p>At the end of the day, your long term plans go a little bit out the window the moment you have a live service game\u2014even one in early access\u2014to have to manage and maintain.<\/p>\n<p>Game director Mark Roberts<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;As soon as we started pivoting to being like let&#8217;s fix the things that players actually care about and address the things that players care about, all of sudden now you&#8217;ve got less focus, less work going into the campaign and stuff like that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;At the end of the day, your long term plans go a little bit out the window the moment you have a live service game\u2014even one in early access\u2014to have to manage and maintain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One of the big pivots the team had to make was for the current state of PoE 2&#8217;s endgame. When you finish the four-act campaign, you&#8217;re handed an endless map of dungeons to run. A lot of it works like PoE 1&#8217;s endgame, but the new ideas for PoE 2 haven&#8217;t always panned out. Efficiency-minded players hated how long you had to spend hunting for special towers on your map to set yourself up for the best rewards. GGG recently <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/path-of-exile-2-is-making-a-surprise-atlas-overhaul-next-week-to-liberate-its-players-from-tower-tyranny\/\">dropped a quick fix<\/a> for this problem and has promised that the next major patch in December will overhaul the rest of the endgame.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t account for that,&#8221; Roberts says. &#8220;Having to not only implement an endgame, but to then rework an endgame wasn&#8217;t part of our initial scope. Variables change, but it will result in the game being the best it can possibly be because we&#8217;ve had so many iterations addressing player feedback and we obviously still get to make the initial campaign and all the classes and everything that we wanted to achieve.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, GGG is also still updating PoE 1, which is about to get a <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/after-9-years-of-avoiding-it-path-of-exile-is-taking-another-swing-at-an-old-mechanic-for-its-new-expansion-this-one-just-kinda-felt-right\/\">massive expansion<\/a> that includes its first reworked endgame mechanic in 12 years. Roberts is busy directing both games and says that, while he&#8217;s managing it fine right now, PoE 2&#8217;s release might require a change to the four-month tradeoff between them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"product\"><a data-dimension112=\"38c0ce80-afe4-46c8-9221-62593d2fb62d\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2025 games\" data-dimension48=\"2025 games\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure \" >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:400px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:100.00%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"Vji3V6i3HDWUHeQ22PrjFL\" name=\"New Project (8).jpg\" caption=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/path-of-exile-2-director-says-he-would-be-beyond-shocked-if-it-didnt-come-out-in-2026-we-never-intended-to-be-in-early-access-this-long.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" credit=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/new-games-2025-upcoming-pc-release-schedule\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-dimension112=\"38c0ce80-afe4-46c8-9221-62593d2fb62d\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2025 games\" data-dimension48=\"2025 games\" data-dimension25=\"\"><strong>2025 games<\/strong><\/a>: This year&#8217;s upcoming releases<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Our all-time favorites<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-50-best-free-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Free PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Freebie fest<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-fps-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best FPS games<\/strong><\/a>: Finest gunplay<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-rpgs-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best RPGs<\/strong><\/a>: Grand adventures<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-co-op-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best co-op games<\/strong><\/a>: Better together<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/path-of-exile-2-director-says-he-would-be-beyond-shocked-if-it-didnt-come-out-in-2026-we-never-intended-to-be-in-early-access-this-long\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Path of Exile 2 Steam page hasn&#8217;t aged well since its early access release late last year. At the time, developer Grinding Gear Games wrote that it expected it to be finished in six months. It&#8217;s almost been an entire year since then and the promised list of features isn&#8217;t all here yet. Even its game director, Jonathan Rogers, knew it wouldn&#8217;t make that deadline a few months before it hit, although speaking to PC Gamer in March he said the team was &#8220;still broadly on track,&#8221; and that he wanted to have it done this year. And then in August, after some nasty DDoS attacks on the PoE 2 servers, he told Eurogamer that it probably wasn&#8217;t going to make it after all.&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/path-of-exile-2-director-says-he-would-be-beyond-shocked-if-it-didnt-come-out-in-2026-we-never-intended-to-be-in-early-access-this-long\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1367864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[748,34],"class_list":["post-1367863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-games","tag-rpg"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Path of Exile 2 director says he would be &#039;beyond shocked&#039; if it didn&#039;t come out in 2026: &#039;We never intended to be in early access this long&#039; | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Path of Exile 2 Steam page hasn&#039;t aged well since its early access release late last year. 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