Grinding Gear Games will take a quality-first approach forPath of Exilein 2023 as the game enters the 10th year of development.Path of Exileis enjoying a relatively stable time asThe Forbidden Sanctumexpansion has managed to hit all the necessary checkboxes for players. Taking the feedback of the player base, Grinding Gear Games is looking to keep the ball rolling with the same design philosophy in future expansions, and they have just the plan to do so.
The previous year started relatively strong with the launch of theSiege of the Atlasexpansion andArchnemesisleague. ButPath of Exilesoon ran into a problem that took months to fix. In an unprecedented decision,Path of Exileincorporated theArchnemesissystem into the existing game whenSentinelleague launched, making the rare enemies ridiculously strong. The situation was further hampered by the arrival of theLake of Kalandraexpansion, where loot drop rates were changed, and the player-driven economy was hurt severely. This move, coupled with theArchnemesischanges, led toPath of Exilehaving the lowest player retention rate in years. Fortunately, Grinding Gear Games reworked theArchnemesissystem and tweaked the loot drops back to a healthy state inThe Forbidden Sanctumexpansion.
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With the experience of a rough year in mind, Grinding Gear Games is finally ready to talk about the future. In an official forum post, Grinding Gear Games has outlined a plan for 2023 where it will release at least two new expansions and hold its much-awaited ExileCon. The post states a new expansion will launch in early April, which means theSanctumleague will be extended by another month. The developers have confirmed that the extra month will help their development cycle of the 3.21 expansion, and they will do something special to keep that downtime exciting. After 3.21, the focus for the studio will be on ExileCon solely.
ExileCon is an annual event centered aroundPath of Exile, where Grinding Gear Games showcase future projects. This event will showcasePath of Exile Mobile, the 3.22 expansion, and thehighly-anticipatedPath of Exile 2alongside its beta dates. WhilePath of Exile 2andPath of Exile Mobilemight still take some time to arrive, the 3.22 expansion will release soon after ExileCon ends, likely within two weeks. Thus, any fans traveling to New Zealand for ExileCon should make plans accordingly, so they don’t miss out on the 3.22 expansion.
Recent times haven’t been particularly easy for Grinding Gear Games, butRuthlessmode andThe Forbidden Sanctumexpansion have brought back player faith. WithDiablo 4launching soon,Last Epochworking on a multiplayer mode, andPath of Exileshowing a promising roadmap, fans of the ARPG genre have nothing to worry about the future of the genre.
Path of Exileis available now for Mac, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
