Everything about PoE2's Endgame is a substantial and comical downgrade compared to PoE1.

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fouquet#0993 wrote:

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luiz1220#4047 wrote:

Agreed.

No idea why they released the game in this state.

Basicaly only the art and sound design are in good shape. Everything about balance, content, level design, mechanics, drops, skill tree, atlas are so unpolished and unfinished that i cant imagine why they released EA now.

I mean, they just made minimum 30 million dollars from this EA release so that is a big reason why.

That quick short-term cash isn't worth so many players having such a bad first experience with the game though. First impressions mean a lot, and sure the campaign may be ok but as soon as the players that GGG wants to retain reach maps they're gonna nope out. Then in those player's minds the game will be "bad". The impact of this can't be taken lightly.

And it's not a very good thing that people are getting hard-stuck on campaign bosses and just quitting either, those are all potential players that could have stuck around but were literally stopped from playing the game.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

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fouquet#0993 wrote:

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luiz1220#4047 wrote:

Agreed.

No idea why they released the game in this state.

Basicaly only the art and sound design are in good shape. Everything about balance, content, level design, mechanics, drops, skill tree, atlas are so unpolished and unfinished that i cant imagine why they released EA now.

I mean, they just made minimum 30 million dollars from this EA release so that is a big reason why.

That quick short-term cash isn't worth so many players having such a bad first experience with the game though. First impressions mean a lot, and sure the campaign may be ok but as soon as the players that GGG wants to retain reach maps they're gonna nope out. Then in those player's minds the game will be "bad". The impact of this can't be taken lightly.

And it's not a very good thing that people are getting hard-stuck on campaign bosses and just quitting either, those are all potential players that could have stuck around but were literally stopped from playing the game.

I agree but I also don't have 30 million dollars.

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fouquet#0993 wrote:

I mean, they just made minimum 30 million dollars from this EA release so that is a big reason why.

Not quite true. They didn't make any money from myself, or like 4 of my friends "from this early access" as we got in for "Free" due to our heinous spending on the game over the last 10 years.

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sephrinx#7591 wrote:

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fouquet#0993 wrote:

I mean, they just made minimum 30 million dollars from this EA release so that is a big reason why.

Not quite true. They didn't make any money from myself, or like 4 of my friends "from this early access" as we got in for "Free" due to our heinous spending on the game over the last 10 years.

Between the new players and the mtx sold I am sure they got at least 30 mil. They got over 1mil early access sales.

The game has clearly a lot of issues (according to feedback from multiple sources, I haven't confirmed them all myself, because I'm a scrub with a job who only got to put 65h in, and now I'm abroad and can't play...), but I think going Early Access (well, beta) was the right call.

Despite some technical issues (I have exprienced performane drops at some point, and apparently there are also freezes/crashes), the game is in a good enough place technically.

There is enough content in the game (I'm not talking acts, but classes and skills) that balancing internally is probably impossible at this point. You need mass testing.

As for the "Vision", it's just marketing/consulting speak. There are probably a few bullet points that someone put on an slide, but who cares. What matters is player feedback, and especially data. "Vision" can be synonymous with hallucination, delusion... With EA they can finally actually SEE how the playerbase reacts qualitatively and quantitatively.

Also during EA they may want to start iterating on the seasonal aspect, with periodic content additions (as they mentioned), major updates/overhauls, and a more structured development cycle.

Also 30M$+ and the fact they said it would release in 2024. Who knows what the reaction would have been if they had delayed again? How is your build in Necro Settlers doing ? :p

They may be further from the mark than they expected, may be 1.0 in 2025 is too optimistic, may be they will decide they need to keep cannibalising POE1 resources.

Whatever the case, they certainly have a lot of work to do in 25. All we can do is provide feedback and hope for the best :)

Yup, to each their own though, as it seems some are enjoying overall.

Time will tell re. the player base later on.

Yes, Early Access, but personally, was mediocre at best for me overall. I'm not so keen on maps...especially once I see more of the community talk about it as well (YouTube, etc)...the feedback is more negative and has a long way to go, so that made it even less interesting/appealing. Kinda funny, as I kinda believed the hype from all the videos before release, so many were like "the next thing, Diablo II successor, etc" and I kinda bought into the hype too in a way. Now, I'm on my 3rd class/character and we'll see how that goes (and last most likely [I really doubt real change will happen unfortunately]). But not interesting in trying others out as they're not really for me, and I've already explored quite a few of the gems/skills anyway across classes (trying hybrid tank w/ Merc...was alright at 1st, but then fell off fast in mid 20s level lol). Actually kinda looking forward to this 3rd char as I'll have minions to do the tanking for me instead now haha (Witch). Overall though, again, personally, still lots of room for improvement - balance changes galore (not saying balance is easy) - and honestly expected Early Access to be a bit better but I also understand nowadays...it's getting tougher w/ budget/economy/game dev costs/etc etc etc. Not going to get my hopes up as it's too much outstanding to do lol. Like others in the community have said, the "identity crisis" is a place to start and own - as I still that's important of course...perhaps GGG wants it to be a hybrid (campaign, PoE1 maps, or a mix) - and well not sure how well that'll go lol. I really do hope the player base will remain/grow from solid replayability/longevity, but again, personally, I'm not seeing it. I also feel that many folks have already expressed the woes from PoE1 and that they're still here in PoE2 essentially (like ranged > melee) - that's just unfortunate to hear (and believe now that I've tried it myself and confirmed via various sources, pros, etc) -- again, I'm not saying game-balance is easy, but at least make an effort from the past...seems like not much has changed from PoE1 in that aspect and that's too bad.