Is the problem Jonathan?

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MeanBob_Games#6853 wrote:

Instead of hovering around 100k they'd probably have at least 125k but instead they're letting LE take their lunch money.

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JakkerONAIR#4902 wrote:

I mean, if we look at the timeline, we could come up with some sort of conspiracy theory.

In 2019, Chris Wilson announced PoE2 as the "4.0 Expansion of PoE1", that will modernise this decade old game.

In 2023, Jonathan Rogers announced that they changed their mind after 4 years of getting supporter packs, and that PoE2 will not be a PoE1 expansion anymore, but instead a separate game.

Then they got a lot of negative feedback from ppl who were able to test PoE2, that it's nothing like "Path of Exile".

A bit later, Chris Wilson was rarely in office and only voiced a few "PoE1 League Announcements", but had no involvement in the development anymore, aside from his personal project "Ruthless".

Then, around a year of advertising PoE2 with the new graphics and classes, we got the PoE2 "Early Access Announcement". There, they revealed that the access to PoE2 EA will cost ppl 30 bucks, unless you already spend at least 500 bucks.

Now, we know Chris Wilson is basically gone.

So, what's the tinfoil here?
GGG leadership already knew that it was highly likely that a huge part of the PoE community does not like PoE2, aside from the graphics and lore, because everything else that makes "Path of Exile" Path of Exile - is not present there.
Setting up an "entry price" for EA is to compensate for the financial loss they will face when many PoE vets aren't interested in "Diablo 5".

Sure. On "PoE2 EA realease" I would've called that just tinfoil stuff, but now, with all the additional information we got since then, the interviews where the "viSiOn" is more important than improving the game and making it the game the PoE1 commnunity is asking for - I am not so sure about it anymore just being tinfoil stuff.

Just milk your old fans one last time and get another "target audience".
Sounds hard, but so far - GGG hasn't shown something that would indicate something else.