‘Maybe it’s time to move on:’ Path of Exile One players crushed by new delay, lack of updates

Following months of anticipation, players of the classic Path of Exile have officially been left in the dust, at least for the time being. Naturally, having little to no desire to move to PoE 2, the community is crushed and disappointed, thinking it might be time to “move on.”

This comes after PoE game director Jonathan Rogers issued a statement for PoE 1 players on Jan. 30, telling them that development on the sequel has taken up so much time and space in the company that there is simply no room for work on PoE 1. He apologized for making promises he later realized could not be upheld, and said it was a mistake to move PoE 1 developers to the second game’s team, though somewhat necessary due to the early access problems faced by the sequel. Finally, he announced the indefinite delay of new leagues and of patch 3.26, saying that work on them will go full steam once patch 0.2.0 for Path of Exile 2 comes out and is maintained for at least a few weeks.

Of course, this has sent shockwaves through the PoE 1 community, many of whom are also players of the sequel. Under the announcement on the PoE forums, hundreds of players expressed their disappointment with Grinding Gear Games’ handling of the situation. “I feel like PoE2 has broken my love for PoE,” one user wrote, sadly saying that it might be “time to move on.” Another said they “have no words for this,” while another still conceded that “it’s been a good ride.”

There are over 184 pages of replies at the time of writing, with the number growing with each passing hour. If you’ve missed it early last year, Grinding Gear Games said they wished to maintain both PoE titles at the same time. While that is still the end goal, Rogers said in his address that the company still has much to learn about doing so, and this situation proves it.

Over on Reddit, the situation is even more dire. The entire PoE sub is overflowing with outrage and bitter mockery, with the player base fearing this is only the start of bad news for the original title. Keep in mind that it’s already been six months since the last PoE 1 league came out, and by the time the next one comes, it’ll have likely been over a year without a proper update.

And, while some are already calling GGG devs liars on the forums, we’ll just have to wait and see if they deliver on the promise of dual-maintenance, even if months after what was initially promised.