With most of the team back and rested from their various holidays over the New Zealand summer, we wanted to give you an update on what the plan is for Path of Exile's development for this year.

2019 will see the release of four significant Path of Exile updates, in the form of 3.6.0 in March, 3.7.0 in June, 3.8.0 in September and 3.9.0 in December. These releases will follow the formula we have been using over the last few years, introducing a challenge league, various expansion features, new character skills/archetypes to play and masses of other fixes and quality of life improvements.

While working on the 2019 updates, we also hope to make significant progress on the 4.0.0 mega-expansion, likely coming sometime in 2020. For those unfamiliar with our version numbering system, once we have released update 3.9.0, we aren't forced to number the next one 4.0.0. For example, the version after 3.9.0 (March 2020) is 3.10.0, as we do not expect to release 4.0.0 in the first part of next year.

Development of 4.0.0 is a massive task and is absolutely affected by our desire to continue to release sizeable leagues at our usual pace, so we are taking our time and making sure it's ready before we decide on a release date.

2019 culminates in the ExileCon fan convention in November, where we can announce and demonstrate December's 3.9.0 expansion as well as a small preview of 4.0.0. This convention takes place approximately 2-3 weeks before the 3.9.0 release, so you should be able to play a near-final build at the show. We expect to put tickets up for sale in the next couple of weeks.

We are also putting the finishing touches on the PlayStation 4 version of Path of Exile, and should be able to announce a release date in the near future.

It's certainly going to be a busy year. Expect to hear more news about 2019's first expansion, version 3.6.0, in around a month!