Grinding Gear Games, the developer of the Path of Exile series, has announced as part of this year's ExileCon keynote showcase that the upcoming Path of Exile 2 will now be a complete standalone sequel, and not just an expansion tacked onto the end of Path of Exile.
Speaking about the decision to turn the content into a full sequel, co-founder Jonathan Rogers stated, "Path of Exile 2's scope has continued to grow and grow. This thing is just freaking huge. There was a point where we realised that our plan to replace Path of Exile 1 with Path of Exile 2 would essentially be getting rid of a game that people love for no real reason. So we made a decision: Path of Exile 1 and 2 will be separate, with their own mechanics, balance, endgames, and leagues."
As for what this means for players of Path of Exile 1, Rogers clarified some matters.
"Everything you have ever purchased or will purchase in the future will be usable in both games unless it's hyper-specific to the content of one of them. You can't transform into a bear in PoE1, so a reskin of your bear form isn't going to work. But you absolutely can equip the awesome sword skin you got and use all your stash tabs."
Rogers does go into a lot of other further depth about the upcoming game, something you can see in full in the keynote here.
What we do know is that Path of Exile 2 won't be coming anytime soon, and that if you do want a taste of the game, the closed beta is planned for June 7, 2024.