POE1 has been killed before POE2 got anywhere release ready.. Overwatch2 moment

lets make it quick

i do not like POE2 - it is YEARS from being anywhere ready. it also has no identity. it has been aggressively promoted as more tactical POE alternative, the older more sensible brother of sorts.

but the fact is: it is the same fruit-fly dopamine mob mowing simulator in the endgame

all of POE2s identity ends when you leave Act 1. everything after that is POE1 but unfinished and with FORCED (oh my how bad it tastes) novelty everywhere you look

im sure people gonna reply with 'just look at steam numbers'. yeah.. POE2 steam numbers include Chinese players. POE1s do not. also, i remember a (good) game: Valheim. it had similar meteoric raise in numbers. where this (good, mind you, i wholeheartedly recommend it) game is now number wise?

POE2 is successful but it doesnt have that much lasting appeal. the second or third playtrough reveal the slog-centric nature of the entire 'vision'. it is all a pile of time-taxes and forced tedium, you can hardly see that designers wanted to make the game FUN in the first place.


to the point.

killing POE1 at its peak, the moment it has been the closest to being perfect instead of low-effort high-yield milking it is one of the weirdest business decisions in the gaming history. sure, one time money grab of selling 1m of EA passes sounds great. but, as someone who works in IT industry, 50m or 100m USD do not impress me. you can burn trough it very, very quickly. esp when - after today - your only money making product has lets say its share of f.. disasters to solve and quickly.

POE demise has been inevitable eventualy but the way it has been done today is just.. bad business, no matter how blinded you are with that potential EA cash grab. GGG easily could have both. i do not buy the story that they couldnt spare 2-3 devs (not the top talent, regular Joes) to keep POE on happy life support for YEARS. heck, even hiring external company to do that for them would have done it. ive setup project teams for far bigger projects in less than 4-6months. it didnt require top-talent from outside.


but no. just kill it because it is still better than the new and shiny. and we cannot have that!

weird and sad

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the problem is not milking EA release - i would have done exactly the same

the weird part is actually killing the viable product for - imo - no real reason other than 'it is still better than the new and shiny and we cannot have that'

it just doesnt make sense to kill POE this early, with POE2 being what it is

there really arent that many '+1' games that CLEARLY outperformed their older prothers. and several FLOPPED pretty much killing their companies (Heroes of M&M 3 vs 4, settlers series, supreme commander 1 vs 2) despite having all the right ingredients

anyway, cash grab - i do not care, it is business after all. but POE seems to have been killed more out of spite than because of anything else

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I agree with your sentiment here. Look what happens when a larger group buys out a company. That fell apart faster than I anticipated though. Funny how money thrown their way instantly made them forget about their supporters before Tencent.

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sidtherat#1310 wrote:

but POE seems to have been killed more out of spite than because of anything else

This may be the heart of the issue. Jonathan makes no bones about his contempt for PoE, and he hardly wants it to compete with his "baby." ='[.]'=

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sidtherat#1310 wrote:

but no. just kill it because it is still better than the new and shiny. and we cannot have that!

Yep, it really is that simple!

Sadly GGG loved the numbers they saw for PoE2 EA and immediately paniced when the reception of end game wasn't great. Deciding to give up their bread and butter(PoE1) to chase the gold rush might double backfire. They upset the PoE1 enthusiasts and they now lose the income from PoE1 leagues... you know ... the thing that paid for PoE2 development to begin with. They basically sacrifice the best ARPG in history chasing their vision of "the next great game". The decision is so incredibly risky. They risk losing a LOT of players for PoE2 because of bad faith. Even the people that only like PoE2 should be worried.

Honestly, they make decisions like children. I don't care what games some game developer likes or dislikes. People that behave irrationally ought not make business decisions or fancy themselves project managers.

One day for sure PoE2 will be the better game but that day is still years away.
Deleting PoE 1 from existence (along with our faith in GGG) while PoE 2 is still not there yet is such a dick move.
No I will not grind THIS awful PoE2 endgame, it is simply not fun or worth my time.