The full release of action role-playing game Path of Exile 2 – otherwise known as the 1.0 release – has slipped further away again. The game is currently in early access, remember.
Grinding Gear Games had been targeting a potential March 2026 release for Path of Exile 2 – that’s what game director Jonathan Rogers told me a few months ago. But in an interview conducted yesterday, Rogers told me he didn’t think the studio would hit that date.
“I’m fairly confident that we won’t be out of 2026,” Rogers said, “but as I said, I never want to really completely promise anything. But I don’t think it’ll end up being March; we’ll have to see.”
His comments follow those made during a Path of Exile 2 presentation Q&A shortly before we spoke, in which he said: “I don’t have a specific timeline but I certainly wouldn’t want to be any later than the end of next year. Obviously we’re trying to get there as fast as we can, but I certainly wouldn’t want to slip into 2027.”
The obstacles to a Path of Exile 2 launch are threefold: the campaign, balance changes and endgame content. Path of Exile 2 currently has only four of six campaign-acts implemented, the most recent one – the fourth – having been introduced in August. These are big things, and even if we assume the two missing acts are ready to release in the game’s next quarterly updates, presumably one after another, we’re still potentially looking at one in spring 2026, and one in the summer, and they will both need testing time. Factoring that in, an autumn 2026 release at the earliest seems more reasonable.
That’s assuming, of course, there are no balance changes or endgame changes that hold that up – both being areas Rogers wants “in a good place” before the game comes out. This is a constant pursuit for a game like Path of Exile 2, and balance changes have already interrupted the early access flow of content as Grinding Gear Games sought to address issues with the hunter class it introduced back in April. This, then, is a potential risk any time the studio introduces a significant new element to the game, such as a player class, which it’s just about to do again with the druid in the upcoming update, The Last of the Druids (0.5.0).
Alongside the new druid class, Grinding Gear Games will introduce a new world (league) for players to play in – something it does in every update. This upcoming league, The Fate of the Vaal, is themed around an ancient Vaal civilization and their lost, time-altering temple that’s located somewhere underground. The cool thing is once you find it, you’ll have to piece the dungeon together yourself, a bit like you do in the blueprint-adjusting puzzle game Blue Prince, although it’s actually an indie game from 2021, Loop Hero, the idea is inspired by, Rogers told me.
The autumn Path of Exile 2 update, which includes the new druid class, the new league, and a significant performance boost for all platforms but especially consoles, arrives 12th December.
Path of Exile 2 launched into early access in December 2024, so it’s been out for about a year now. What was already a very impressive package back then has only grown since. This is, in my mind, the action RPG to beat.
