is EA PoE 2 gonna be free or you gonna need buy beta key?

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

I honestly have no idea why anyone thinks this 'gobshytes of support cash' thing is a thing for PoE 2 EA. Fall of Oriath was an expansion for Path of Exile 1; it stood to reason that substantial supporters of Path of Exile 1 get some sort of early crack at it, given there was a pretty big connection between 'substantial support' and 'substantial experience with the game' then. Especially if we consider that GGG wanted FoO to be tested as a whole new ten act experience rather than an end-game add-on. So substantial supporters who had experience with the game's campaign but probably weren't too wrapped up in its gruelling end-game were *very* important for early testing.

But for PoE 2? I see no real connection, unless we're going with support not for PoE 1 but for GGG. And that's not quite the same thing, is it? I have absolutely no doubt I could 'beg' my way into EA PoE 2, but I do not expect to receive an invitation out of the blue. And if they do monetise it, well, I have more than proven that I am content to throw in a bit of cash to try something new.

Not that I will here because oh boy am I happy to wait and see what PoE 2 is on release -- more than done my time in the trenches of alpha/early access, where expectations need to be tempered constantly and even then you're probably going to be disappointed with the disparity between EA and release somehow.

So really it'll come down to whether they're using EA as a true testing ground first and foremost, or a fundraiser. It can't be both equally, and I suspect most Exiles would claim to want the former but REALLY want it to be the latter.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

They might, but can they afford to, time-wise? This isn't like PoE 1 where they had a pretty luxurious beta/release schedule. Their only competition was shitting its own bed repeatedly.

This time around, they have at least two titles to be concerned about. One's hitting its first anniversary with a lot of people excited for its *paid* expansion in a few months; the other is a bit of a dark horse but THQ Nordic have been quietly getting TQ2 onto folks' radars. And then there's just general lack of interest in the ARPG genre compared to others.

Again, I'd be delighted if they just took all the time in the world and produced an epoch-maker. That'd be grand.

I don't see it happening though.

So multi-stage testing is...what? Again, looking at its louder, more mainstreamly-popular siblings, that meant a very select demo for the influential and lucky (maybe?), then a few weekends of server 'slamming'. And that was it, as I recall. But it's tough to compare them because of course DIV is a premium GAAS-lite and couldn't do the 'momentum' thing that a f2p GAAS in prolonged EA can.

Lotta factors. All I know is they're gonna have to do something really amazing this time because DIV's shadow is much bigger than D3's from what I can tell. Not because DIV is anything incredible -- it just got there first and it does pretty much what it's supposed to. Pretty sure it's cleared a billion USD in revenue now.

Kinda makes that 50m you posted look a little...little.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

...This time around, they have at least two titles to be concerned about...