When Path of Exile first emerged on the ARPG scene, it was like an oasis in the desert. Diablo 2 had long reigned as the genre go-to and Diablo 3 was still shaking off the worst aspects of its notoriously rocky launch.
Over 10 years later, it's a very different story: Diablo 4 got a much better start to life than Diablo 3, and games like Lost Ark, Last Epoch, and Grim Dawn pose fiercer competition than ever for the still-in-early-access Path of Exile 2.
In an interview with PC Gamer, however, Path of Exile 2 game director Jonathan Rogers said that becoming the one ARPG that hogs all the attention isn't really the goal: "There is room for quite a lot of different players in the genre. It doesn't have to be that you've just got one game that dominates all the others."
Rogers said his nonchalance at the competition is partially due to the seasonal update format most big ARPGs share these days, which encourages players to come back every few months to start new characters and try out the latest season's tweaks and new mechanics.
While plenty of shooters and battle royale games have seasons or similar setups to accompany battle passes and the like, Rogers noted ARPG players have found it to be a particularly good fit.
"[ARPGs] are one of the genres where the player community have embraced the idea of the season where you play the game for a while, you quit, you play something else, you come back and play the next season," said Rogers. "That's kind of the expectation in the genre, partly due to the fact that our approach to that has kind of inspired a lot of that stuff going on."
So long as this remains the state of things, Rogers thinks there's room for Path of Exile 2, Diablo 4, and the others to coexist.
"I'm perfectly fine with the idea of [there being ARPGs from] plenty of other people," he said. "So long as people are willing to come back and play our game for a month four times a year, then I'm good."
As for his feelings on those games themselves, Rogers says he actually doesn't play them exhaustively.
"I do play them a bit, but honestly, I am not actually someone who gets to the full endgame grind of lots of other action RPGs," he said. "When I'm looking at game design inspiration, I'm usually looking at things outside of our genre … I want to play, like, Civilization or something, and then look at what are some interesting mechanics I could steal from that, as opposed to what I could steal from other action RPGs."
It's certainly true that ARPGs have taken to the seasonal format, with every Diablo game except the first embracing it and games without it like Grim Dawn enjoying its own community-run seasons, and it does make sense for the genre; once you've fully kitted out your character with latest gubbins, what else is there to do but start again?
As someone consistently overwhelmed by all the new live service games competing for my attention and leveraging a fear of missing out to get it, I'm glad to know Path of Exile 2 doesn't feel obligated to come for my every waking moment.
Path of Exile 2 is available to buy in early access on Steam, and Grinding Gear Games just announced the details about its first big update, which is coming soon.
