Path of Exile was originally initiated by a group of fans who love Diablo 2 and hope to bring new vitality to ARPG through their own efforts. After several years of development and testing, Path of Exile was officially released as a free PC game in 2013 and quickly won the love of numerous players. Since then, through regular seasonal league events, Path of Exile has continued to provide players with fresh content and maintain its long-term vitality.

As for Path of Exile 2, it has developed from a large expansion originally envisioned to an independent and complete game, bringing players new mechanisms, career choices, and rich story background and campaign experience. Path of Exile 2 emphasizes the depth and details of the construction, allowing players to freely combine various powerful skill trees, many loot options, and numerous POE2 Currency drops.

The currently known information includes some key points about the introduction of newly introduced mechanisms, improvements in gameplay, and the existence or non-existence of a micro-transaction system. In addition, the official also announced the expected release time so that long-awaited players can be prepared.

Path Of Exile 2 Release Date

From Diablo 4, its expansion Vessel of Hatred, to the upcoming full launch of Last Epoch, ARPGs have had a great few years. The highly anticipated Path of Exile 2 was originally scheduled to be officially released on November 15 and was expected to be the next big hit in the resurgence of this genre.

However, developer Grinding Gear Games recently confirmed that the early access release of Path of Exile 2 will be postponed to December 6.

Although fans are disappointed with the game’s delay, many players still express understanding and support. In order to ensure the quality of the game and the experience of players, the development team does need more time to polish and perfect the game.

The development team has also stated that this delay is a hard decision. They are well aware that this may disappoint and dissatisfy some players, but they firmly believe that this is necessary. They hope to bring the smoothest release experience to players as much as possible through this delay.

But these specific reasons also make the delay a double-edged sword.

Pros Of Being Delayed

The development team detailed the main reasons for the delay in the video, announcing the delay as follows:

• Server-side infrastructure work is taking longer than expected. The development team is working hard to ensure the stability and performance of the game in order to provide players with a smooth and trouble-free gaming environment.
• All accounts for Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2 need to be integrated, even across consoles, to ensure that players can access all PoE micro-transactions acquired over the years.
• Migrating the database and creating a new system is a critical process because it involves backward compatibility of all player data and ensuring that everything is accurate. The purpose of this is to prevent any player from losing any fees paid or having their account information messed up because of data migration.

All the above reasons are related to ensuring a perfect release. Grinding Gear Games may release it before the original release date, but the team is worried that mistakes may be made. And given the large number of game releases in November and December, this delay actually creates more space for ARPG games, especially by spacing PoE 2 further away from Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred, reducing market competition.

Related: Path Of Exile 2: How To Make The Best Ranger Build? - My Personal Prediction

Cons Of Being Delayed

While the delay of PoE 2’s Early Access version is intended to ensure a more perfect release, it also brings potential disadvantages. If the release is not as smooth as Grinding Gear Games hopes, it may repeat some mistakes in PoE’s history.

PoE has encountered various problems in the past multiple League releases, which were because of game bugs or insufficient server capacity. Given the scale and complexity of PoE 2, it is difficult to fully guarantee that everything will run perfectly even after the delay.

In addition, there is also a concern that some players may still not be able to restore all the cosmetics earned in the previous game. If PoE 2 is accompanied by numerous new micro-transactions at the time of release, this situation may further exacerbate player dissatisfaction.

Players expect to seamlessly continue their journey in the new game, including keeping their hard-earned cosmetics and content. If this is not handled properly, it may affect players’ acceptance and satisfaction with the new game.

For developers, ensuring game quality and player experience is always the top priority. Especially for highly anticipated works like PoE 2, any adjustments to the release time need to be treated with caution.

Therefore, although the change in the date of PoE 2 early access phase may cause concern or even worry to some players, in the long run, if such an adjustment is to give the development team more time to polish the product and solve problems, then it may be a good thing.