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Path Of Exile fans looking forward to the game’s sequel might have to wait a little longer, according to the head of Grinding Gear Games, Chris Wilson.
During a new phone interview with PC Gamer, Wilson said that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected the studio’s hiring plans and work on Path Of Exile 2. “I hate to blame COVID for stuff, but that is a big part of it at the moment,” he said. “We have had difficulty hiring internationally because the borders to New Zealand are closed, so that has curtailed the exponential growth of our asset creation team a little bit.”
“The progress of development hasn’t been as fast as we wanted, and so our goal is to bash as hard as we can during 2021 on Path Of Exile 2 stuff and see how much headway we make,” Wilson added. “Trying to get as much done as possible, and that’ll give us a better idea of a good release date we can estimate, which should be towards the end of the year.”
PC Gamer later asked Wilson if a 2022 launch date for Path Of Exile 2 would be likely, to which he replied: “Yeah, I think that’s accurate.” A beta for Path Of Exile 2 was originally due to launch in 2020, but was later delayed due to COVID-19.
Path Of Exile 2 is set to be an expansion of sorts for Path Of Exile, rather than a full-fledged sequel. “Path Of Exile 2 is a new seven-act storyline that is available alongside the original Path Of Exile 1 campaign,” Grinding Gear Games explains on its website. “Path Of Exile 2 retains all expansion content that has been created over the last six years and introduces a new skill system, ascendancy classes, engine improvements and more.”
Grinding Gear Games is currently gearing up to launch the Echoes Of The Atlas expansion for Path Of Exile on January 15. It will include new environments using assets from the upcoming sequel, alongside fresh bosses and more. Learn more about it here.
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