POE 2

The timing for a 2023 release seems right. GGG has had years of preparation and every league to test new concepts.

All the good stuff:
• ~150+ million NZ$ richer after 3 years of excellent company profitability (business model still working)
• 2 years into beta testing POE 2 concepts
• Sufficient staff
• Well-developed Passive Tree
• Much loved Atlas Tree
• An abundance of content in the game and more in the wings
• A very hungry crowd!

What is not so good:
• Strong vocal discontent among Reddit and forum users
• Unsolved technical issues
• Ignored QoL issues
• Terrible melee play
• New leagues that people hate or skip
• New leagues that are released in untested mode
• Constant nerfs of builds and skills
• Meta issues
• 10 Acts everyone is tired of
• Too much content
• A game for the 1% and no-lifers
• Unresponsive Devs
• Poor communication from Chris
• Ignored requests that are both sensible and improvements

So how does one solve this situation? More half-baked leagues will not appease anyone. Clearly, the solution is to announce POE 2 beta and a launch date. Here is why it will happen in July at Exile Con 2023. A July reveal of POE 2 gives GGG the chance to address all of the “not so good” items listed above and feed the very hungry crowd. One of the most telling things for me is that Chris has been silent except when absolutely necessary. He would love to have a big unexpected reveal. The games needs this and GGG will need to do it at an ExileCon. They are unlikely to have a third Con before July/Aug 2024.

• Why would one have ExileCon in July in NZ? They had no choice. People will be spending thousands of dollars to attend and you need to give them a really big reason to be happy with their trip. But because the launch date will be pre-Christmas, ExileCon has to be in NZ winter. It is winter and, unless you are a skier or like wet weather, it is a terrible time to visit. Average temp is 14C. Cold and damp is not like summer in NZ.

• If they held ExileCon in their summer (Dec/Jan), that would mean a late spring or summer 2024 POE 2 launch. That is too far away for the state of the game and players. And if they had that time line, then there would no reason to have a Con this Aug.

• All the big competition is now out (or will be) by July.

• They are finally ready after two years. They clearly know the story line and the task has been to integrate the new content and graphics. They have already dumped 6 Acts at one time into the game. That was the practice round for POE 2

• A July announcement will give GGG 2 months of door busting revenue in support of the launch

• An August beta launch will give GGG four more months of "public" testing. I suspect they will forgo any new league content for POE 1 in late 2023.

• The holiday season is always a good time for folks to spend money on what the love (new supporter packs).

What I think we will see at ExileCon:
• Game play by attendees in the new Acts
• Free, raffled, or bought beta passes
• New Gem system revealed
• New character models revealed

We were all surprised when Acts 5-10 were added all at once after the very slow previous one new Act at a time. Expect such a surprise for POE 2.

Speculated Game changes:
• 6 new acts
• A redo of the original 10 acts that may shorten the run to 6 or 8 with all new art in the Acts
• A reconfiguration of all the various leagues’ content now in the game or on the side. Many could be incorporated directly into the storyline.
• A significant, fun and real melee buff! :)
• QoL issues that have been hanging around for years will be fixed
• They will adapt the current quarterly league changes to fit the new “two paths to maps” format.
• The game will basically be the same with lots of improvements
• End game? I have no idea
• Abundant skills and gear remakes
• Better graphics all around
• Improved map art

I think much of the current abundant content will be integrated more closely into the game. They have to create space for new quarterly leagues.

This scenario seems to fit well when I look at the bigger picture of the past three years. All the pieces are there.

I guess we will know soon enough!

TL;DR

Yeah not all that information was correct but I admire the attempt at some sort of summary or recap as GGG has been a church mouse since 2019. (which if my math is correct is longer than "2 years")

A 2023 launch is both ambitious, and frankly foolish. Granted they can't wait forever, but pushing out something that might not be ready in the face of a D4 Tsunami, might not be the best course. They only get one shot at this, and D4 isnt going to play nice with them.

As I see it, ExileCon is the key. It is a big event and having it would not be a frivolous thing. Having it just to have it does not make sense. I think we have underestimated the work GGG has been doing over the past 3 years. They have had Act 1 of the "new game" up and going for years now. They have had the money and staff to make faster progress than they made from 2013 to 2018. I think that GGG has realized for a while that they have many disgruntled players who are waiting patiently for the release.

ExileCon is their premier stage and having it at the worst time of year for going to NZ means something. How finished will the release be? Hard to say, but given that they have been all the parts in every league, I think it will pretty polished and hopefully all well integrated.

Why do you think that 2023 will only produce a subpar product? The leagues over the past few years have been their testing ground. We have been playing leagues, but we don't actually know what aspects of each league are the test beds for inclusion in POE2. I think that Chris and his team are more capable than we think.

[crosses fingers]

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ChanBalam wrote:

I think that Chris and his team are more capable than we think.

[crosses fingers]

Hope you got some toes and other appendages to cross, They have quite a hole to climb out of after those exploding totems.. It might not have been such a big deal if it wasn't during a historic competition to create-a-unique-item.

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ChanBalam wrote:

Why do you think that 2023 will only produce a subpar product?

Quite frankly I think they need more time.

And by more time, I mean in the area of testing, balance, and core integration. Hell they can't get the current ascendancies in order now, let alone adding 19 more, and that's just one example. Removing the sockets from gear, which overall is a big plus for gear pressure and progression, leaves many affixes, corrupted mods, and unique items to be either entirely removed / reworked, or very heavily modified. Even some MTX (like the gem link one) will have to be changed.

Then there is the massive elephant in the room. PoE2 is just PoE 4.0 as an expansion. All the PoE2 features need to work with PoE1, and also ported to PS4 and Xbox. I Imagine design scope here ensuring that everything works, and allowing them to move forward to season design that needs to work for all platforms, cannot be easy. In fact I was pushed to single out a single reason why PoE2 won't be ready in 2023, this would be the reason. Platform and version unification.

If a 2023 launch did happen I wouldn't be shocked if they said console wouldn't be at the same time, and indefinitely delayed.

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SilentSymphony wrote:

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ChanBalam wrote:

I think that Chris and his team are more capable than we think.

[crosses fingers]

Hope you got some toes and other appendages to cross, They have quite a hole to climb out of after those exploding totems.. It might not have been such a big deal if it wasn't during a historic competition to create-a-unique-item.

My explanation would be that they are too focused on POE2 and the leagues and events are not getting the attention they need. If are going to announce a release at ExileCon for Nov-Dec, then all the sloppiness of the past two years will be forgotten if the beta is fun and accessible.

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DarthSki44 wrote:

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ChanBalam wrote:

Why do you think that 2023 will only produce a subpar product?

Quite frankly I think they need more time.

And by more time, I mean in the area of testing, balance, and core integration. Hell they can't get the current ascendancies in order now, let alone adding 19 more, and that's just one example. Removing the sockets from gear, which overall is a big plus for gear pressure and progression, leaves many affixes, corrupted mods, and unique items to be either entirely removed / reworked, or very heavily modified. Even some MTX (like the gem link one) will have to be changed.

Then there is the massive elephant in the room. PoE2 is just PoE 4.0 as an expansion. All the PoE2 features need to work with PoE1, and also ported to PS4 and Xbox. I Imagine design scope here ensuring that everything works, and allowing them to move forward to season design that needs to work for all platforms, cannot be easy. In fact I was pushed to single out a single reason why PoE2 won't be ready in 2023, this would be the reason. Platform and version unification.

If a 2023 launch did happen I wouldn't be shocked if they said console wouldn't be at the same time, and indefinitely delayed.

I know nothing about the porting to consoles, so I've ignored it. They have had three years to work on the integration and the new aspects. My thinking is that they have solutions to many of issues we have complained about but have held them off to make the announcement expansive. They have piecemealed some of the new features (Atlas tree) slowly, but are holding out much for the announcement. Yes I am being optimistic, but the timing feels right.

I think Ruthless will be the new "baseline feel" for POE2 as a reset to playing through the Acts. I think we have seen most of the new pieces that will show up in in POE2 (except gem sockets).

I do agree that if they cannot release POE2 this year (or Q1 of 2024) then it will another year. That will just sad and disappointing.

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Lyutsifer665 wrote:

who knows....they first announced it in 2019....maybe another 4 years from now it will actually come

You do remember what happened later that year, right?

We'll have a better idea in about 2 months. We're just players, so until then anything related to POE 2 coming from players in these forums or anywhere else is just baseless speculation.

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bauermayers wrote:

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Lyutsifer665 wrote:

who knows....they first announced it in 2019....maybe another 4 years from now it will actually come

You do remember what happened later that year, right?

We'll have a better idea in about 2 months. We're just players, so until then anything related to POE 2 coming from players in these forums or anywhere else is just baseless speculation.

yeah i remember but that "thing" was never much of an issue in NZ to begin with and in early 2021 when the vaxx was available to everyone, life went back to normal again....so they cant really blame such a long delay on that