PoE fans want to know what will happen with first installment. Players dissatisfied with PoE 2 are especially worried
PoE 2 may be successful, but loyal players aren't forgetting its predecessor. Fans are beginning to worry about the uncertain fate of the original Path of Exile.
Path of Exile 2 is currently one of the most popular games on the market, competing with Diablo 4, although it is still in Early Access. Grinding Gear Games will soon release the first update, introducing, among other things, balance improvements - and even if the ARPG is far from perfect, some fans already admit that it surpasses the first installment.
On the opposite side, we find people who continue to eagerly revisit Path of Exile from 2013 and patiently await a new update. Will it arrive? Some players have serious doubts about that.
"Let's be honest. They don't know what's going to happen to PoE1"
The conversation starts with a Reddit post by a player who voiced his worry about the absence of news on PoE updates. The last patch was released in July of the previous year; in October, it was announced that version 3.26 would be delayed until early 2025, with late January as the most probable date.
A month later, Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts said that the update will most likely appear only at the end of February. Since that time, there has been radio silence, at least concerning PoE. No wonder fans are concerned about the fate of the original, especially when the sequel received update so quickly.
So far it seems like it [the first part] is abandoned, even though PoE 2 development is straight up funded by players who supported their favorite game for many many years, and now what we get is a maintenance mode game, even though we were promised PoE1 will still get developed and updated.
- raymennn
The author of the original post notes that the current 3.25 league in PoE has been going on for 170 days, while previously the average time was 90 days. Considering Grinding Gear Games' focus on the development of PoE 2, the long-awaited update may be postponed even further. The high entry level for PoE 2 isn't helpful either, even turning away some long-time fans.
PoE 2 is simply not for me, and I can say many people feel the same way. Opening the game and playing it feels like a job, because you have to hyper focused all the time.
- raymennn
?urrently, many aspects of Poe 2 gameplay (e.g. atlas mechanics, map layouts, the craft system, and even gem/skill system) feel inferior to their PoE 1 counterparts, making the Endgame experience rather tedious and unengaging. So, for the foreseeable future, I'm going to stick with PoE 1.
- Borotnik
The other commentators think we'll probably have to wait for more news, and GGG itself isn't completely sure when the 3.26 update is going to be ready. Given the number of players with fond memories of the first part, the "ending" of PoE wouldn't make much sense.
PoE is a "seasonal" game, people play it for 1-2 months, and fuck off after until the new league is released. Having both games fully supported would be their best decision. If each game has a 4-month league, that means that they could basically keep the entire ARPG scene under their arms with a league starting every 2 months.
What GGG probably doesn't understand, that the "PoE 1 only" player base will not move to PoE 2 without drastic changes in the (Ruthless) game design philosophy. Even if they will fully abandon PoE 1, those player most likely will move to another game (like LE, etc.) instead of PoE 2.
Will the first part really get a new season? Or maybe conspiracy theories have a right to exist and GGG is deliberately delaying the update? We will learn about this when the mentioned end of January or February arrives.