2023's been an outstanding year for game announcements, and we're not quite done yet—at least for Path of Exile fans. Their big day is almost here as Grinding Gear Games celebrates its ExileCon convention this weekend in Auckland, New Zealand. We don't have a ton of details just yet aside from a pair of snazzy trailers, but here we'll go over what we do know and tell you how you can check out all the streamed news from the convention.
We'll also be getting some information about Path of Exile Mobile, which was delightfully announced at the first ExileCon in November of 2019 with co-founder Jonathan Rogers' line "So, mobile games are kinda bullshit, right?" We don't have release dates for either game, but GGG has confirmed that we'll be getting beta start dates. They will also have a keynote address, dev panels, and interviews with streamers and community figures.
When is the ExileCon livestream?
The ExileCon livestream coverage starts at 2:30 pm PDT on Friday, July 28 on the Path of Exile Twitch channel and on YouTube with a pre-show from some popular PoE streamers, with the official keynote kicking off at 3:00. Here's what that equates to in other time zones:
- 3 pm PDT, July 28 (Los Angeles)
- 6 pm EDT, July 28 (New York)
- 11 pm BST, July 28 (London)
- 12 am CEST, July 29 (Berlin)
- 10 am NZST, July 29 (Auckland)
Here are some highlights from the schedule:
Friday, July 28
3:00 pm PDT: Keynote Presentation
6:00 pm PDT: Character Skills (Followed by a gameplay showcase with Mathil)
9:00 pm PDT: Dev Panel - Wacky Path of Exile 1 Mechanics Q&A
Saturday, July 29
1:00 pm PDT: The Bosses and Monsters of PoE 2
2:00 pm PDT: Item Design and Mechanics
4:00 pm PDT: Gameplay Showcase with Kripparrian
For megafans and those interested, there are also panels about narrative design, sound and music, the finals of their race event, and an action RPG roundtable with community members and developers.
Personally I hope they'll be addressing some other stuff. Path of Exile is an incredible game, but can be a bit daunting for a new player. I'm going to be keeping my eyes peeled for any announcements about quality of life improvements that may reduce our dependence on outside sites and tools—an in-game auction house, skill builder like Path of Building, finally getting rid of Orbs of Regret and just letting us respec whenever. If we can get some improvements along those lines as well as the new campaign and slick new graphics, PoE 2 could be a home run.
