Approximately 80% of the content originally planned for the release of Path of Exile 2 has been cut

I wanted to bring attention to the contrast between the quantity of content planned to be available on release in the original PoE 2 (PoE 4.0) announcement versus the current amount of content that is expected to be available on release. I found the difference to be shocking.

The original announced plan for PoE 2 was for it to be a massive update, or "One Game Two Campaigns

". All of the existing content in Path of Exile 1 was going to be included in Path of Exile 2.



"We just spend 6 years making expansions for Path of Exile, so imagine if we released Path of Exile 2 and it was just a bare campaign with none of that extra content. This would be a sad shell of an action RPG compared to the current state of Path of Exile. It would have none of the years of exansion content and improvements that make the game great."

"It [Path of Exile 2] will continue to be maintained with all of the updates and game system improvements that we'll make to Path of Exile"

-Chris Wilson, Exilecon 2019



In the original plan, PoE 2 would have included every skill gem from PoE 1, including all Vaal/Transfigured/Awakened gems. This change alone reduced the number of skill/support gems in PoE 2 from 718 to 147. It is also worth mentioning that it was stated by GGG that every skill gem released since 2019 was created with PoE 2 in mind. The support gems showcased in the PoE 2 gameplay showcase would even be included in the 3.9 patch following the announcement.

"When we add new skills to the game you'll be able to play with them in either the Path of Exile 1 or Path of Exile 2 campaign"

"We really wanted to be able to address all of the shortcomings while not sacrificing even a single bit of the functionality we already have"

-Chris Wilson, Exilecon 2019



The original plant for PoE 2 (PoE 4.0) also included any existing league mechanic we have in PoE 1 at the time of launch

and "Much more". In the current state of PoE 2, the number of league mechanics has been reduced from the ~28 we have in PoE 1, to only ~7 and the modified iterations in PoE 2 are trimmed down (in some cases significantly so).

"Most importantly all of your favorite Path of Exile expansion content like Delve, Breach, Incursion, Legion will be fully integrated"

-Chris Wilson, Exilecon 2019



We have also lost all of the Endgame mechanics and PoE 1 Pinnacle Bosses as well as their Uber varients, which were intended to be included in PoE 2. This includes The Elder, The Shaper, The Conqueres, Sirus, all four of Venarius' Synthesis Constructs, The Searing Exarch, The Eater of Worlds, and The Maven including all of her special invitations that combined and enhanced these bosses.

The new endgame system is certainly unique, and I can imagine a lot of ways in which it can be expanded, but we have lose our existing Atlas and its rich Atlas Passive Skill Tree.

All of the existing Ascendency classes in Path of Exile 1 were also meant to be available in Path of Exile 2. While the final comprehensive list of PoE 2 Ascendancies has not been released, I expect many of our original Ascendencies to have been cut from Path of Exile 2. For example, in Path of Exile 1 the Witch has the Necromancer, Elementalist, and Occultist Ascendencies. Currently none of these are present in Path of Exile 2 and the Witch class will only be receiving 1 more Ascendency on top of the 2 currently available in Early Access (Infernalist and Blood Mage).



While in the title I suggested that the amount of cut content was about 80%, I consider that to be a conservative estimate. If you consider the complex combinations and interactions between everything, the true difference may be much larger. In my life I've seen a ton of games launch, many of which ended up missing some of the originally planned content. However, I cant recall ever seeing a game cut content at this scale.



On the Path of Exile 2 Steam page GGG states that, "We are planning to be adding content to roughly double the size of the current game during Early Access and into Release." Even with that in mind, the sheer quantity of content that will be missing from Path of Exile 2 at launch compared to the original 2019 announcement is truly mind-boggling.

Including the 6,389,187 league mechanics from POE1 would be a massive mistake.

I stopped playing POE1 because i fell behind on a few leagues and didnt want to spent 1000 hours just learning those.

Launching POE2 with fewer mechanics helps new and old players actually get into the game.

"

... imagine if we released Path of Exile 2 and it was just a bare campaign with none of that extra content. This would be a sad shell of an action RPG ...

:Ackwardmonkey: