Path of Exile 2’s just-announced 0.5 update will be the last major update until the game’s 1.0 update. Originally set to release just 6 months after launch, the ARPG’s long-awaited campaign finale is launching sometime later this year.

Path of Exile’s 0.5 update, Return of the Ancients, is the largest update ever for Path of Exile 2. Adding over 50 new hours of Endgame content, a new build planner, two new Ascendancy classes, and much more, game director Jonathan Rogers explains that the game’s biggest update yet will actually be surpassed by its next update: the game’s long-awaited 1.0 launch.

Speaking to FRVR in a recent media roundtable, Rogers explained that 0.5 “is intended to be the final early access update to PoE2”. Unless plans change, the next update to the game will be the title’s 1.0 release, finishing the game’s main campaign and offering even more content.

“I just want to get back to regular league development and not have all this over stuff going on.”

Path of Exile 2’s Jonathan Rogers on the game’s 1.0 release

Rogers said that the purpose of Return of the Ancients is to “make sure that we got the endgame into a good enough state before we could actually move onto doing a final 1.0 update”. As for the scale of future content, outside of 1.0, Rogers said: “I honestly have no idea whether we’ll be able to make updates as large as this again, except maybe 1.0. Like, 1.0 is obviously going to be huge.”

While there’s currently no release date for Path of Exile 2 1.0, although it will be coming after ExileCon in November. “The next update we do will actually be 1.0,” Rogers told press. “We don’t have a date for you, but it will be a little bit after ExileCon, which is in November, so you’ll be able to see that then.”

Rogers explained that the game “is nearing the end of early access, at least that’s the goal, right?” The game director continued: “The plan is that this [Return of the Ancients] should make the game feel full and that it’s got everything that it needs to have. So, you know, we’re ready to go into full release”.

During the roundtable, we asked Rogers if it feels relieving to know that fans and journalists will finally stop asking about 1.0’s release. “Absolutely,” he said. “I really want to get this game finished. I really, really do. It’s, you know, definitely something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. So, I just want to get back to regular league development and not have all this over stuff going on.”

Rogers explained that there will be a large amount of content dropping in 1.0, although it is still quite a few months away. Alongside some additional performance improvements, the game’s launch will finish the game’s campaign, and improve on long-standing issues. For example, instant controller/keyboard switching will be present in the game’s true launch.

“I’ve been promising that one for a long time,” Rogers said. “I feel like every single time we do one of these I’m like, ‘it’ll be the next one guys, I promise’. And somehow, every time, we manage to fail at getting that one in. It will be in 1.0. I absolutely swear. It has to be, but we don’t have that one yet. It’s a real shame.”

Path of Exile 2 has come a gigantic way since launch, and it;s already a brilliant ARPG with tonnes of content available. While 1.0’s release is almost on the horizon, that