Tencent Sixjoy shopped / bought GGG, which means there can be also others.

After the latest news shared from Jonathan this was the one positive thing I could think of. The stock value of both private and public companies go up and down, which means there's periods when it's worth shopping around (making a bid/offer) like the trade that occurred between Tencent Sixjoy and Chris Wilson.

What I'm trying to say is that PoE1 can and will exist for a long time, because everything about it can be changed, altered, adjusted, etc. including its monetizing model and yes based on annual revenue performance and change of ownership as time passes by there will be different employees and key faces stepping up and down.

It's corporate capitalism 101 where the market dictates the future of a company that makes decisions based on revenue, because resources like employees and total hired are there for the share of that revenue. The exception would be GGG being owned / purchased by a super rich individual who's bought the company solely for their own vision of what it can be done with it, while everyone else would be welcome to participate and support but not needed.

The gaming industry is consistently going through a change. We all want the best (whatever that is for us during certain periods as we continue to experience life) and where we are, what we care about and support (spend our money and time) these things will remain the same. It's the lead developer who makes decisions when it comes to what type of game they can design that would see themselves playing with the amount of resources at disposal and the rest decide if, when and for how long they'll support that lead developer.

Chris Wilson did what most would do (given his net worth prior to GGG), because at the end of the day money gives more freedom and options to do what you want (including how to spend your free time), which means now more than ever he's in a better position to lead design PoE1 again, start another company and design another game or whatever he did way before all of that like enjoy playing another game, which I believe was Diablo 2 and others.

Humans in their nature want to be in charge, want to be in control of key decisions and lead, that is until they become aware that there's others who can do what they would themselves, but then a lot more or better. Lead developer role is everything in game design where intellect, creativity / innovation and gaming exp determine the quality of the product.

In my opinion right now what's hurting both the PoE playerbase and company is the F2P monetizing model. Lack of developers means delayed and unpolished leagues. GGG needs to be honest with the community and themselves of what they can do and what or who they'll need to accomplish that.

I don't think there's a rule or law where they're forced to keep or use only this F2P monetizing model forever. Johnathan said it himself in the latest video, they needed to move the PoE1 team to PoE2 and for a long time now, like years we were already getting one league per four months including one Gauntlet event through the year.

The company needs a steady annual revenue (now more than ever). Miscalculations or mistakes are costly, but they're part of the experience.