This weekend Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games surprised fans with the announcement of Path of Exile 2. Revealed during the opening ceremony of its first-ever ExileCon fan convention in New Zealand, Path of Exile 2 deceivingly isn't a standalone sequel, but rather a second campaign and a major overhaul that will be incorporated into the base game. With a vastly improved graphics engine, animations, and deep reworks of core systems, Path of Exile 2 is an exciting step forward for the small New Zealand studio.

The elephant in the room, however, is Diablo 4. Announced just two weeks prior at BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard Entertainment's legendary action RPG is back in all its satanic, profane glory. And with an increased emphasis on MMO-esque features, Diablo 4 looks and sounds an awful lot like Path of Exile. But Grinding Gear Games co-founder Chris Wilson isn't worried.

"One thing with Path of Exile 2 versus Diablo 4 is they're making a new product and they're going to try some new things," Wilson explains. "They're going to get some things right and some things wrong. [Diablo 4] may be amazing or it might be bad. We don't know. And [Blizzard] won't know until people play it—until the die is cast—and they've released something."

As Wilson explains, Diablo 4's situation is very different to Path of Exile, which already knows what its audience wants and how it can improve. "I know Path of Exile is good," he says. "I'm not planning to screw around with anything that makes it good. I know the new campaign has better quality and more fun than the old campaign. I know the new skill system lets you do everything with the old one while removing some frustrations and adding some new stuff. So I want to only make it better in a safe way. If we have a crazy change like a new idea for the skill tree that might just be dangerous. We probably won't do it."

But Wilson also recognizes that despite Path of Exile's popularity, the studio can't stand toe to toe with Blizzard. "Look, Path of Exile is successful and is making good money, but it's not making Blizzard money at all," Wilson says. "The first week of Diablo 3 sales probably made more money than our company will ever make, I suspect. A lot of people have a lot of fun with Diablo 3 regardless of what the hardcore fans and Path of Exile fans happen to think of it."

That disparity in the cultural influence of Diablo is something that Path of Exile can benefit from, Wilson says. "[Diablo 4 is] a retail game from what they've indicated, and we're a free game. They're also going to be spending a lot of money marketing their game, which is great and will be good for the genre. And that means that when people have enjoyed playing [Diablo 4], they can also enjoy playing us because it costs them nothing to get into it. And people will certainly be talking about both games."

There's even potential for a healthy kind of balance for players that want to play both Diablo 4 and Path of Exile, Wilson suggests. Because Path of Exile is structured around temporary Challenge Leagues that remix the core game every few months, there's a kind of natural tide of players jumping in during the start of a league and waning over time. "Path of Exile is kind of designed around playing heavily at the start of the league, and then gradually going to play other games," Wilson says. "We're not in communication with Blizzard about their season start times, but if both companies were smart, they would stagger it so the season start times work well for both groups of players."

"Every Path of Exile player is probably going to buy Diablo 4 and enjoy it. I strongly believe that and that's amazing. It's going to be good for the genre. And, likewise, I would like a lot of Diablo 4 players to try Path of Exile. If both games are good, I think it's a win for everyone."

Path of Exile's developers just announced an expansion so big that it's practically a sequel (even though it's still one game). But long before Path of Exile 2 arrives in 2021, the game will continue pumping out new updates and temporary leagues for players to challenge, two of which are coming next month.

Path of Exile's 3.9 update is called Conquerors of the Atlas and, among many smaller changes, features an entirely reworked endgame. Currently, once players beat Path of Exile's campaign they set out to explore the Atlas of Worlds, a map of randomized alternate dimensions that go from mildly challenging to batshit insane. Once the new Conquerors of the Atlas expansion releases next month, the Atlas of Worlds will be significantly changed to present an even stiffer challenge.

Path of Exile's endgame is enormously complicated and hard to explain, but the gist is that after defeating the original villains of the Atlas, the players themselves have become corrupted and now need to be put down. To be clear, the character you will be playing isn't the boss, but Conqueror's of the Atlas adds five new endgame bosses that are based off the main character classes you choose.

Like any Path of Exile update, there's going to be dozens of new changes and new items. One of the biggest is a complete rework of bows, including new skills and buffed damage. Bows will now be more viable as a weapon type, and abilities like Ensnaring Arrow, which prevents enemies from moving, will give bow users more options in a fight.

This new update will also introduce an optional new league called Metamorphosis. For the uninitiated, these temporary leagues force players to start new characters but offer fun new systems that remix the core gameplay in interesting ways. In this case, Metamorphosis introduces a new character named Tane Octavius who will periodically join you while you play.

Tane will take DNA samples from monsters you kill, and once you have enough you can call on Tane to combine them to create your own boss battle. Each DNA sample Tane collects will have different properties that will change what abilities this new boss has, with more powerful samples increasing your chances of getting more powerful rewards—assuming you can defeat your creation that is.

Both the Conquerors of the Atlas update and the Metamorphosis league launch on December 13 on PC.

Path of Exile 2 was announced today at ExileCon, the big show that's taking place at this very moment in Auckland, New Zealand. Despite the title, it's not actually a separate new game, but rather an expansion that also completely overhauls the base game in the process.

Path of Exile 2 will add a new seven-act story that takes place 20 years after the end of the current game. It will overhaul many of the game's core systems and rework the mechanics of each of the game's seven character classes. It's also getting a major visual rework with physics-based rendering. For example, arrows will bounce off of some surfaces and stick into others depending on what they're made of.

Path of Exile 2 characters will use the same "class archetypes" as those of the original game, but you'll have to create a new one in order to play the new story. PoE2 characters can select from 19 new Ascendancy Classes that differ from the old ones, which will still be available in the original Path of Exile campaign. Fortunately, all your cosmetics will carry over, as it all exists within a single ecosystem.

Path of Exile 2 is still a long way off: Grinding Gear Games said it won't likely even begin beta testing until very late in 2020. For the more immediate future, Path of Exile expansions will continue to release on their regular three-month schedule, with content that will be available in both Path of Exile 1 and 2 campaigns.

Our man Steven is on the scene in New Zealand and will have a far more in-depth report on what's coming soon. In the meantime, you can find out more at pathofexile.com, and check out the vastly improved Path of Exile 2 engine in action in the 14-minute gameplay video below.