"I'd like to think we're one of the game dev companies with the least amount of plans."
Grinding Gear Games' Mark Roberts just revealed that Path of Exile will receive another major patch in late 2026, right before the sequel’s anticipated release this year.
Path of Exile 3.30 Releases Before Path of Exile 2’s Full Launch
One More For the Road
In the recently concluded Curse of the Allflame media event, Grinding Gear Games’ Mark Roberts revealed that Path of Exile’s 3.30 patch is releasing later this year. "We’re still going to have another PoE 1 release this year," Roberts insisted when asked about the timing of the next Path of Exile patch during the Q&A, despite the overlap with Path of Exile 2’s highly anticipated 1.0 launch. “End of year is going to be pretty Path of Exile heavy.”
He confirmed the release schedule to be before PoE2 1.0, and around the time of ExileCon 2026, which takes place on November 7-8, 2026 in Auckland, New Zealand. "We've got our massive convention at the end of the year. It's not just for PoE 2's release... we have a PoE 1 expansion as well," implying that ExileCon will feature announcements for the new league. Roberts wasn't able to give a specific date for the release, but clarified, "It’s hard to say exactly when, but it will be there before PoE 2’s release."
Given GGG's almost-consistent schedule of releasing a patch every four months, as well as Roberts' proclamation of its tentative release schedule, a mid-November release, preceding a December release for PoE 2 1.0, seems highly likely. That sets the new league up to directly compete against the highly anticipated GTA 6.
While Roberts was confident about revealing their tentative timeline, he also did remark that his word shouldn’t be trusted, especially when it comes to their schedules. This, of course, refers to the recently revealed third Scion Ascendancy, Luminary, which Roberts initially mentioned to be releasing "thirteen years away" back in February during 3.28’s Keepers of the Flame media event.
"You can’t really trust anything in terms of our timelines," Roberts joked, "We could have a plan, or a lack thereof, and then three months later, the league comes out and we’re like, ‘Alright, now what?’, and it invalidates our entire previous plans."
Their unorthodox ideation and design process has been a key part of their success, so much so that it’s become part of their identity and a reflection of the quality of both their games. "I like to think we're one of the game dev companies with the least amount of plans," Rogers proclaims, describing the team’s approach of both giving players what they want and continually iterating to create better versions of both games.
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I don’t know, but we are flexible, right?"
Path of Exile 3.29 launches on July 24, 2026 at 1 PM PDT for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
