It turns out that 2019 is already a year for Path of Exile. Grinding Gear Games released Path of Exile 2 and Path of Exile in December, and it turns out that players are already excited about these online action role-playing games.

Path of Exile is one of its fastest-growing games on Western servers in five years. Grinding Gear Games general manager Chris Wilson shared the details when he introduced the Delirium extension in the 3.10 update on March 13. In terms of quantity, the growth peak from 2018 to 2019 is roughly the same as that of Grinding Gear from 2016 to 2017, although the growth rate is large because there were fewer players at the time.

Wilson said in the video on Monday: "I'm happy to see the increase and the fact is that we increased the number of players in game time between 2018 and '19 by about the same as the number of players in 2015." Wilson said This does not include growth in China and Taiwan, as "Grinding Gear Games" needs permission from partners in these regions to reveal these numbers. Studios no longer report a specific number of players, but instead choose to track player hours or concurrent players.

Path of Exile launched the PC version in 2013 and has steadily expanded regions and platforms. It entered the Xbox One in 2017 and PlayStation4 in 2019. It entered China in 2017, making it a key area for enjoying both PC free games and action role-playing games.

Path of Exile releases extended content and technology updates multiple times each year, and also launches new cosmetics. It is worth noting that GGG's main profit method is the sale of POE Currency, more server options, role slots and other Things that do n’t affect for a moment, play games instantly. At the same time, many updates have addressed player requests. For Delirium, for example, Grinding Gear is committed to improving skills and wands, but it also stems from years of learning how to update free online action role-playing games. After all, there is no roadmap. Path of Exile is one of the first such games to be launched.

"I think we're doing the right thing and publishing content that people like," Wilson said. "To make sure we've been publishing content that fits Path of Exile, we have a lot of ideas, and I think in the first few years after the release, we There was some struggle there. "

I ask if this is because Grinding Gear is just getting better in terms of expansion, or because it has learned the lessons of making terminal games for a few years. Wilson said that these early extensions focused entirely on stories, character customization, or the addition of early games, and "not enough to emphasize hitting something for all players." "While this does satisfy a group of players, it hasn't really led to a real increase in the number of players as others feel underserved."

Wilson said another reason for the growth is part of the megatrend of action role-playing games. "As you can see in recent RPG releases, action role-playing games with massive single-player games can get your attention. Everyone loves to play in these games with new storyline content, So if you can drop a lot of behavior on someone, you will get a lot of extra game time, "Wilson said.

Another way Grinding Gear hopes to retain players is to enable people to bring their characters and microtransactions from Path of Exile to Path of Exile 2. You will be able to play improvements from the same customer and some customers in the sequel to the original version.

"We want to add a real sequel, next to Path of Exile 1," Wilson said. "There is no isolated community. This also means that many improvements of Path of Exile 2, such as new POE Currency Buy and new effects for characters, may affect Path of Exile 1 as they are still in the same game. In addition, they can be purchased at IGGM when needed, and their website is fully equipped and secure. It's like abandoning the old instead of studying the new, this is to keep the old and the old together.