Grinding Gear Games has just revealed its next major update for Path of Exile 2 in the form of Return of the Ancients. While not guaranteed, this major update is intended to serve as the last early access release before the launch of 1.0 later this year.
As we reported yesterday, game director Jonathan Rogers confirmed that 1.0 will launch sometime after ExileCon in November, provided everything goes ahead as planned. “I really want to get this game finished,” they said. “I really, really do.”
“It’s, you know, definitely something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” the developer continued. “So, I just want to get back to regular league development and not have all this over stuff going on.”
While 0.5 currently serves as the biggest update ever for the early access ARPG, Rogers admits that record will likely be supplanted by 1.0 when it launches. The major update will finish the game’s campaign, adding Acts 5 and 6, as well as a host of other, additional content that has yet to be confirmed.
Right now, Path of Exile 2 boasts eight classes, but Grinding Gear Games originally planned for the game’s release to feature twelve. While an additional class might be on the cards for the game’s 1.0 release, Rogers has now confirmed that the game will not be launching with all twelve planned classes. Instead, the remaining classes will be added in post-launch updates.
“Originally we were going to do 12 character classes but I actually don’t believe any more that it’s crucial that all of them are necessarily in 1.0,” the game director said to Eurogamer. Instead, the plan is to make sure that every existing class feels complete with all the Ascendancies they require. Other classes can simply come later.
“We want to make sure that all the character classes we do have are finished and they’ve got all the ascendancy classes they need, and they’ve got all the skills they need, and everything like that,” Rogers continued. “There are more character classes that will come. But I don’t actually necessarily think that for 1.0 you need that.”
Nevertheless, it does seem that at least one more class is on the cards for 1.0, although Rogers would not confirm this. When it comes to the game’s actual campaign content, the game director explained that it’s mostly done, but with many months until release, there might be some other surprises hiding around the corner.
“There’s been a lot of work on them [Act 5 and 6] already, and it’s just a question of getting everything ready for release,” he said. “Most of the environment work for Act 5 is done. There’s a little bit left for Act 6. We’re a long way along the road of having that stuff done.”
Path of Exile 2 1.0 is still a long way away, likely launching in November or December. Outside of the new campaign acts, it’s not quite known what will be included in the game’s full release. However, considering the sheer amount of content already available in the game so far, there will be a hell of a lot to play on launch day.
