Path of Exile 2's 1.0 release won't need to accommodate other game releases, director says—except GTA 6: 'That's a Goliath I don't want to take on quite frankly'
Overview & Key Takeaways
Even without a PC release, GTA 6 has Grinding Gear Games carefully planning ahead.
Path of Exile director Jonathan Rogers says he's never worried that much about the timing of other game releases—particularly other seasonal action RPGs—when it comes to scheduling major updates for his own game. But this year, Path of Exile 2's 1.0 release will likely be within a few weeks of the one game that has him reconsidering this approach: Grand Theft Auto 6.
In an interview with PoE co-creator and former Grinding Gear Games director Chris Wilson, Rogers said the timing of other game releases isn't usually a concern, "and honestly the community would slay us if they thought that we were delaying things just because some other game had a thing coming out."
"That being said, GTA 6 is a bit of a problem," he admitted. "If there's a release you're going to avoid, I would say that's the one."
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The only saving grace for PoE is that it's primarily a PC game and won't have as much of an overlap with GTA 6 while it's still exclusive to consoles. But nobody can deny that almost everyone who plays games will be very aware of GTA 6's release, and Rogers knows that will still have an impact, however indirect it may be.
"The thing is, [Rockstar] is going to buy out literally all the media. Anything that is possible to spend money on, I'm sure they'll be spending it on," Rogers said. "So probably not a good idea even just for that reason alone to launch even on the same weekend as them."
Rogers doesn't explicitly refer to PoE 2's 1.0 release in his comments, but I have to imagine that's what he's thinking about. He recently announced that it will leave early access before the end of the year and after ExileCon in early November, which means it's going to drop within a few weeks of GTA 6's November 19 release date no matter what.
Talking to Jonathan Rogers about Path of Exile 2 - YouTube
We've known GTA 6 is coming to consoles this year for a while, so I doubt Rogers is implying PoE 2 will be delayed, but rather that its specific release date will accommodate the fact that the biggest game in the world is coming out around the same time. PoE has cultivated a considerable fanbase of loot-hungry PC players over the last 13 years because of GGG's consistency with new expansion releases. It'll be hard for even GTA 6 to temper much of the excitement around the release of the highly-anticipated sequel—as long as there's a bit of a buffer between the two, of course.
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Amused by Rogers admitting his one and only fear, Wilson made a joking reference to PoE's history of being compared to Blizzard's Diablo series: "GGG always had the David versus Goliath thing going on, so why not take on Rockstar?" Rogers laughed and said, "Well, yeah, that's a Goliath I don't want to take on quite frankly."
