According to Path of Exile 2 game director Jonathan Rogers, the PlayStation plus requirement for PS4 and PS5 players is not something the team is keen on. While the Grinding Gear Games founder hopes that this won’t be a requirement in the future, he couldn’t commit to it.
Speaking to VG247 during Summer Game Fest 2024, Rogers commented on the presence of a PS + disclaimer on the PlayStation version of the recent crossplay trailer. While this trailer notes that a subscription is required, the same cannot be said for the Xbox version.
“So that […] that is not our hope.” Rogers states. “That’s something I believe should be okay without having a subscription later, but I can’t commit to that because ultimately it’s one of those things where there are negotiations that occur. I don’t think that should be required but, let’s see what happens”.
Following this, I asked whether PlayStation players could expect an extra in-game incentive if they do end up having to pay for a monthly subscription to play Path of Exile 2 online. To this, Rogers responded, “Ultimately I haven’t thought about that. We’ll have to see when and if we get to that. But for now I’m hoping we can have it so people can play without subscription. We’ll see what happens.”
With cross play and cross progression, I also asked whether or not Grinding Gear Games would still be able to keep to its previous pledge to carry over microtransactions from Path of Exile 1 (where there’s a parallel). This too, seems more complicated than the Path of Exile team would have liked.
“Maybe I shouldn’t talk too much about the specifics here, but we’re going to make purchases carry over to platforms to the greatest extent they will let us do it. To the extent where that doesn’t happen, it’s because we’re having trouble negotiating with that platform. There are sometimes barriers between platform holders and wanting to do that.”
“Our policy is, we’re going to fight as hard as we can to carry all of that over. I don’t think there will be any problems on some platforms, while on others there is definitely some convincing [needed].” Rogers would not specifically point out which platform owners are more lenient in this regard, and which were proving troublesome. He also couldn’t speak about the specific barriers the team is running into here, as he “suspects there’s an NDA in there”.
However, Rogers also was sure to note that if you’re one of those Path of Exile 1 players who wants to transfer your purchases over to the same platform, this will be generally issue free. It’s moving those across platforms where speed bumps are.
“Generally speaking, it’s going to be fine between PoE 1 and PoE 2 on the same platform, because the platform holders have no problem with that. But when it comes to cross-platform monetization there’s more of a minefield of things there. But like I said, we’ll make it happen as best as we can.”
“Ultimately it comes down to the policy of platform holders.”
We’ve got way more coming from this interview and more at Summer Game Fest 2024 – so keep an eye here for more previews and interviews over the coming days!
