Grinding Gear Games (GGG) recently announced that early access for Path of Exile 2 will be delayed by three weeks, shifting the release from November 15 to December 6. I couldn’t help but smile when they explained the reason.
GGG had promised that all microtransactions from Path of Exile would carry over to Path of Exile 2. But as they began implementing this, they encountered some infrastructure issues. Everything had to be backward compatible across both PC and console platforms. Given that Path of Exile is now 11 years old, combining databases uncovered all kinds of problems:
“How do multiple accounts get the same name? How do they end up with the same email address? How do multiple accounts have the same Steam ID? Why does this person’s account name appear as random gibberish that doesn’t even decode?
We have to get everything perfect so that no one loses anything they paid for and nobody’s account gets broken.”
It’s a daunting task, isn’t it? Although they felt they could still meet the original launch date, GGG wisely decided to take the extra time to resolve these issues and optimize the new code for multiple platforms.
What sets Path of Exile 2 apart from its predecessor? Players will have 12 classes to choose from, a more streamlined storyline of six acts, and over 100 endgame maps right at launch. We will learn more in the upcoming weeks.
When Path of Exile 2’s Early Access starts on December 6th, it will be on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. While we wait, in the video below, GGG discusses boss design in Path of Exile 2.