Upcoming patch schedule and Open Beta date estimate

We expect that Path of Exile will enter Open Beta in mid-August. At that point our final character wipe will occur and the game will be permanently available for everyone to play.

Once we enter Open Beta, we will stop selling the current set of Supporter Packs and will instead offer other options for purchasing micro-transaction credit. If you want to buy a Kiwi pet, you will need to do so while Path of Exile is still in Closed Beta.

Many people who have supported Path of Exile financially will receive physical goods posted to them (such as t-shirts, posters, copies of the game and soundtrack). We are about to start preparing these and we expect that they will be printed and posted before August.

A few months ago, we stated that we hoped to enter Open Beta in June. Some of the crucial features that we must enter Open Beta with are not yet finished, so we will delay the Open Beta until they are. As mentioned above, we expect that this will be mid-August. While we strongly believe that this estimate is accurate, we will update it over time if work progresses ahead or behind of schedule.

One of the advantages of not having a publisher is that we are able to create our own deadlines without being forced to open up the game to the public in an unfinished state. While I am sure that many of our patient fans are disappointed by this announcement, please rest assured that the game is almost done - lucky testers (and our generous supporters) have been playing the Closed Beta for ten months and can hopefully attest to our high quality standards.

Here's the plan for the last remaining patches before Open Beta. The patches will take approximately three weeks each, and will be available to Alpha testers a week before they are deployed to the Beta realm.

0.9.10: Will be deployed Tuesday, June 5. I've discussed its contents here.

0.9.11: Among other changes, this patch will enable the new end-game (which we have been hinting at for a while) and the Act Two final boss. It will include the ability to swap between weapon sets.

0.9.12: This patch will fix most of the issues with Minions. It will also introduce PvP arenas and the ability to challenge other players to duel. We expect to improve the Brutus fight in this patch as well.

0.9.13: A secure trade screen and substantial update to server stability and capacity is scheduled for this patch.

0.10.0: The official Open Beta release, which we expect will be deployed a week or so after 0.9.13. It will have Act Three enabled, voice acting for most of the NPCs and characters, as well as a range of cosmetic micro-transactions to purchase.

There are hundreds of minor bug fixes and small features such as additional skill gems and monsters scheduled during the above timeline as well, but they are too small to individually list here.

While the Closed Beta has expanded in features and some content in the last year, most of our artists have been working on Act Three. Here's a teaser of some of their recent work.

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Kyliathy wrote:

Am I the only one who thinks that Act 3 looks a bit similar to Act 2? As someone before me said it, we could use a bit of snow ::- D. Or something... I don't know... different.

And I'm saying this not as pointless bashing, but constructive criticism. I already put my money where my mouth is and I wish only the best to GGG and this game ::- ). So come on, bring a bit more graphical diversity.

We purposefully picked an area that wouldn't spoil what most of Act Three is like!

Jonathan even commented this afternoon that he was worried this particular image looked too similar to Act Two. Don't worry, it's very different. You'll be surprised :)

"

Wow, very nice. A lot is going to happen for this game in the next two and a half months!!!!
Still, I'm also curious what's going to happen once the game hits open beta. Will there still be patches frequently that add new content as regularly as these? Might we ask what is in store for the game on a slightly larger timeline: say, a year?

Yes, we will continue to patch regularly. There are years of improvements left that we plan to make. Once we're closer to August we'll talk about what the next set of planned changes are.

"

AncientSteltek wrote:

"We expect that Path of Exile will enter Open Beta in mid-August. At that point our final character wipe will occur and the game will be permanently available for everyone to play."

This does really mean that characters from the open beta will remain and will NOT be deleted after the full release?

That's right.