During the Path of Exile 2 preview and press conference, game director Jonathan Rogers revealed details of the recent three-week delay. This includes a detailed elaboration of the technical reasons, how the team was able to meet the original release date, and the approximate cost.
“We explained that we actually just underestimated the time it would take to bring the realms of PoE 2 and PoE 1 together. This is very unfortunate because it doesn’t seem like this should really delay a major launch! I don’t really know what to say What's ironic is that now that the work is basically done, I thought we might actually be able to set an initial release date, but it's so close that it turns out to be very risky, so we feel like we have to push it back.”
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“Now, obviously you give game designers three weeks and they take a leap, right? So they're excited to be able to do more polish. They're like, oh, the game is going to be better because of this Ultimately, the reason is the backend, not the game itself.”
Rogers then spoke about the challenges of making this decision as a game director, and the cost of delay. “It's very difficult because when you're a game director you're under huge pressure not to delay. All these marketing campaigns are booked and it's going to cost us a lot of money. There's a lot of stuff like a 20 percent deposit but in the end We felt it was important to do this because if we hadn't done the back-end work, the launch could have been a disaster, and hopefully it won't be one now!”
When asked about the specific cost, Rodgers was hesitant to talk about it, but said: “Honestly, I don't think I'd want to get into it, but, yeah, look it's almost certainly over a million dollars. It's mine. Meaning, even from the server provider's promise, we must have the server! [ready] On that date, so now we're paying for a month for a server that we can't actually use. Things like that are just random considerations and you'll find all kinds of things wherever you look. ”
Beyond that, Rodgers also noted his personal feelings about the postponement and how it will affect fans' expectations. “I feel really bad because I know a lot of people are going on holiday but it's too risky and we're desperate to do something.”
It's going to be a tough call, but if you sit back and imagine the backlash that could occur if players' PoE 1 purchases didn't transfer, or if there were some other unforeseen backend glitch in the gaming community. After launch, the decision started to make sense. Even if it costs an eye-watering amount of money.
What are your thoughts on this delay? Are you happy with what Grinding Gear Games is doing? Let us know below!
