F2P Done Right: Path of Exile Enjoying Two Million Players
If you build it, they will come. That was the hopeful mentality of Grinding Gear Games as they set out to make the Diablo 2 successor everyone wanted. Path of Exile was ambitious, an incredibly deep action-RPG with loads of customization and a balanced non pay-to-win approach. To say Grinding Gear Games succeeded would be an understatement, they knocked it out of the park.
Since launching its Open Beta in late January, PoE has seen over two million registered players with more joining every day. At this pace it is on track to becoming one of the most popular PC game releases of 2013. Chris Wilson, producer for Grinding Gear Games had this to say about the explosive success:
"We're really pleased with Path of Exile's reception. It blew our expectations out of the water and continues to grow every day," said Chris. "The continued feedback and support from our fans has been great. We expect to add a lot of new content and features during the Open Beta period as we approach full release later this year."
GGG isn't one to stop and simply enjoy their hard earned success. The developers plan on sticking to providing new content each week. The most recent updates added new skills and eight new unique items, six of which were designed by the game's Diamond Supporters - those who donated $1000 in order to be involved in the development of an item. GGG really seems committed to not only constantly improving the players experience in PoE, but also involving the community in the creation of new content as well. Something we don't see much of outside of Valve.
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About the Author
Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.
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Oh and i did play "diablo"3 and idk where people say its polished and balanced and all that.... i mean even for me a huge diablo fan who both the game at relese i was just ...uhhh... the game took a big step back with its animated graphics and all the mecanics.
And get this GGG is actualy lisening to its players something D3 failed to do (or lets be honest here they just didnt care like most said they got there money out of milions of copies and still get from auction boots that cost 250$ haha )
In the end for me PoEis a far superior game one i will play till that other huge dungeon crawler even before Diablo will be relse(might know what i am saying if not ehhh live with that) ^^
Erm, no.
I tried the game on CBT and again on OBT, its a fine game, for a f2p stand point, but no where NEAR as fun, smooth, polished and balanced as Diablo III.
Sorry, say what you want, you may even be the majority (or maybe you arent), but you shouldnt say 'Diablo 2 successor everyone wanted' cus some people had a bad time with D3 (most of the complainers didnt even play the damn game).
D3 has its flaws (and being getting better by each patch), but its far better than PoE for me and milion who STILL play D3.
If I want to click click click, I'll just play me some Bejeweled.
Big like. Good Job GGG!
As far as i know, even the 1000$ diamond supporters do not get the item they create. That item is added in game and they will find it like everyone else.
And that skill tree... Now i'm never happy with the skill customization in any other game :D