Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile 2 is set to receive its next major update, The Last of the Druids, on December 12, 2025. However, the team behind the sprawling, gothic ARPG are technically behind schedule.
When Path of Exile 2 launched in early access back in December 2024, the game was expected to be in early access for just six months. However, an entire year after, the game is just receiving its 0.4.0 update, but the team is confident that they will reach 1.0 sometime in 2026.
Speaking to FRVR at a round-table interview, game director Jonathan Rogers said the team is “confident” that 2026 is a realistic release window for the ARPG’s 1.0 release. Following major gameplay changes, a DDOS attack and altered development plans, the game’s 1.0 update now has an indefinite release date.
“So, 2026, I’m pretty confident in that,” Rogers said when we asked about the game’s release date. “But, I mean, you know, at the end of the day, we have to keep going until we know that we’re ready for release.”
“We are willing to continue making big changes to the game, whatever it takes to make sure that it’s a real banger.”
Path of Exile 2 game director Jonathan Rogers
While a 2027 release isn’t off the table if push comes to shove, Rogers explained that the team is shaping up well for a 2026 release date. “There should be no reason why we shouldn’t be [released] in 2026,” he said, “but, you know, we’ll see.”
“I mean, I’ve previously said that the conditions that we have to meet are: we have to have the campaign finished, we have to have the balance of the game in a good place, and we have to get the endgame n a place that people are enjoying as well. Once those are done, once all that’s good, then we will be ready to release.”
Rogers explained that, despite the vastly extended development time, the team is proud of the game’s progress so far. While there’s not a guarantee that 2026 will be the magic year for Path of Exile 2, the game director explained that the team has been prepared for the efficiency of releases.
“We’re trying to organise our team around getting releases out this quickly, we see that as something that is kind of important,” Rogers said. The game’s upcoming Druid class has been in development for a “very long time”, but was paused to work on Huntress, but the team is now primed to jump onto parts of the game that need to be worked on at any given time.
“I’m definitely very happy with what we’ve been doing since [launch],” Rogers continued. It’s been a long road for sure,” Rogers said. “The main thing is just making sure that, like, I want to make sure that we feel incredibly confident when we get to 1.0 because, when a game goes to 1.0, there are so many people who are then going to be like, ‘Okay, GGG is saying this game is done now.’”
“I want to make sure it feels like all of the major issues that people have with the game are done. We are willing to continue making big changes to the game, whatever it takes to make sure that it’s a real banger, that everything about it [is good], and there’s no one saying, ‘oh, this whole system sucks’. We just want to make sure we’re at that point.”
Rogers explained that the original Path of Exile went “a long way” in that regard with years of changes, and Path of Exile 2 is going an “even longer way”. Even after 1.0, there will be countless updates of balance changes and expansions, but that’s just how Grinding Gear Games works.
