In the wake of last year's announcement for Diablo Immortal, it was clear the mobile gaming scene was ripe for a quality ARPG release, and Grinding Gear Games has just swept in to announce Path of Exile Mobile. The title is being developed in-house, and the developers say this mobile version will buck the platform's "bullshit trends," which plays directly into Blizzard's snafu last year. Amazingly Grinding Gear Games is very aware of mobile gaming's downsides, and so has gone out of its way to release a trailer that states the company is concentrating its efforts on making a good game that avoids the evil garbage mobile games are known for.
The announcement trailer above is definitely worth a watch. Not only does it open with the acknowledgment of mobile gaming's issues with microtransactions, time gates, and energy bars, the dev has made it clear that there will be zero compromises when compared to the wildly successful PC version. Of course, changes to the core game are still expected, such as streamlined levels for shorter sessions, though it appears all the depth of the original will be retained. There's also a sly dig at Blizzard in the mix, where the dev mentions that Path of Exile Mobile will be developed in-house.
What the above trailer doesn't discuss is that Tencent purchased a majority stake in Grinding Gear Games back in 2018, which muddies the waters a bit. While the dev maintains that it will remain an independent company and that there won't be any big changes to how it operates, the statement that Path of Exile Mobile will be developed in-house sounds a little convenient when considering Tencent's stake in the developer. So I guess we'll just have to see how this all plays out.
So far details are rather light, so we don't yet know when Path of Exile Mobile will officially land on the Play Store or how it will be monetized, but the fact that the devs are willing to state that it will exist as a "complete Path of Exile experience with no pay-to-win elements," is definitely music to my ears. Hopefully, more details will be released as development advances, but until then, enjoy watching the Path of Exile Mobile trailer above, because I know I did.
Source: YouTube