14 DAY TRIAL // Chris Wilson, the leading producer and designer working on Path of Exile, says that the current crowded action role-playing game genre is an advantage for his small team because of its profile, thus increasing the chances of success for his own release.
The developer tells games.on.net that, “When Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 launched we received press coverage because we were similar. If they did like Diablo 3 they’d discuss us in a negative way, and if they didn’t like Diablo 3 they’d discuss us in a positive way. But either way we’re getting discussed, we’re getting users and numbers, which is great.”
Grinding Gear Games saw a great surge in interest in Path of Exile when Diablo III was launched and Wilson says that the traffic to its site grew as many gamers became disappointed with the Blizzard game and went looking for an alternative.
According to the designer, the biggest problem for Path of Exile is the launch of other big titles and he name-checked Guild Wars 2, which might appeal to some action role-playing fans and led to a decrease in the amount of talk about the Grinding Gear Games title.
Wilson adds, “It’s better that competitors come out, because then there’s some discussion around it rather than a somewhat-different game that people will go and play, because they’ve been waiting for years to play it.”
Path of Exile is a game that aims to take the hardcore appeal of Diablo II and translate into a modern experience that players can instantly enjoy.
Both dungeons and weapons are randomly generated in the game and players will be able to interact in big hub areas where trading is set to take place.
At the moment, Path of Exile is in closed beta and it does not have a launch date yet.