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Despite being announced almost two years ago, Path of Exile 2 might be even further from release than we expected. According to Grinding Gear’s Chris Wilson, the sequel will launch before 2024, and the public beta will happen within a year or two.
At the beginning of 2020, Path of Exile 2 development studio had made it clear that the sequel won’t be ready until at least 2022. Previously, producer and lead designer Chris Wilson didn’t rule out the possible release sometime in 2022. It seems that’s not the case anymore.
As reported by PC Games.de, during the recent Baeclast podcast Wilson talked about the current state of Path of Exile 2’s development and all the challenges the team has overcome over the past few months. When asked whether the eagerly anticipated action RPG will hit the market before 2024, the dev replied the studio is expecting so. He later dives into further details, saying the team will probably reach the public beta phase at least within the next two years — that’s the summer of 2023 in the worst-case scenario.
The pandemic and the associated effects are without a doubt to blame for the delay, as the development is progressing more slowly than originally planned. With New Zealand borders remaining closed for the rest of the year, it’s pretty hard to seek and hire new staff to expand the team. Grinding Gear also had additional problems with the whole art direction for the project to make it more distinctive from its predecessor. “We are now in full production mode,” Wilson assured the fans.
The developer clarified the team has already completed about 90 percent of the first act and 75 percent of the second act of the game. With a total of seven acts announced for Path of Exile 2, there's still lots of hard work ahead.
While the news might be a bitter pill to swallow, fans still can enjoy the original title in the meantime. With its new Expedition League, adding four new merchants, and 19 new gem skills, there is plenty of content waiting. And you can check the sequel’s “next-generation action combat” in the recent gameplay video, shown during ExileCon.