Path of Exile 1 3.26 Begins Development After PoE 2 0.2.0
GGG just released a video where Game Director Jonathan talks about the next PoE1 3.26 league, which is set to begin development a couple of weeks after the release of PoE2 0.2.0. He particularly focuses on the challenges they've faced with maintaining two games at once, especially in light of Path of Exile 2's stressful launch. Check out the summary of GGG's reasons for the delays and their plans moving forward below.
Key Takeaways
Here are the key takeaways from the video:
- GGG's goal was to release PoE1 3.26 in late October before the PoE2 Early Access launch, but:
- They anticipated high PoE2 launch stress.
- A December release was too close to PoE2.
- January wasn't feasible due to developers being on Christmas break.
- Therefore the plan was to release it in February, which would be 7 months after the last league release "Settlers of Kalguur". This would already be far longer than the average content cycle of 3 to 4 months per league.
- As development continued a February release became visibly unfeasible because:
- Creating the PoE 2 endgame needed a lot of extra help from PoE1 developers.
- Jonathan felt that pulling these developers away before launch was impossible as endgame was not in a shippable state.
- This was further exacerbated by the initial 3 week delay of PoE2.
- A lot more immediate development work is necessary to get the game where GGG wants it to be.
- Their conclusion: PoE1 3.26 Development can only begin a couple of weeks after PoE2 0.2.0 releases.
- They are working on the pre-development for 3.26 where they can.
- Jonathan promises to devote as many resources as needed to get 3.26 done as soon as possible afterwards.
- He also acknowledges that they still have to learn how to develop two games simultaneously and how to structure the studio to make it easier.
- There is no release date yet.
A Message to Path of Exile 1 Players
Community_Team on pathofexile.com:
The ongoing Settlers of Kalguur expansion in Path of Exile 1 was launched in July 2024. Since the release of Path of Exile 2 in Early Access, our players have been asking about the future of Path of Exile 1 and the timeline for its next expansion. In this video Game Director Jonathan Rogers addresses the situation.
While this isn't the news many of you were hoping to hear, we’ll continue to improve the structure of our studio to ensure we’re in a position to deliver our promise of releasing updates to both Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2.
Thank you for all of your support over the years. We'll provide you with further updates as soon as we’re ready.
“An empire must be built to weather any storm.” - Emperor Izaro Phrecius
Path of Exile Coverage
So it's official: Path of Exile 1 3.26 development starts after PoE2 0.2.0. While this may be disappointing for PoE1 fans we understand GGG's reasoning and are looking forward to whatever they have in store for us. Looking for more news on Path of Exile 1? Then head over to our Discord and select the Path of Exile role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Stay sane, Exile!
Written by: Cptn Garbage
Reviewed by: Tenkiei
