Tencent Buys Shares in Path of Exile Studio

Grinding Gear Games To Stay Independent, Allegedly

Path of Exile has been locked in a pretty constant flow of updates, leaving Grinding Gear Games both prosperous and busy. To that end, Chinese publisher Tencent has bought up majority stock in the company. While this move puts GGG squarely in the big (or at least much bigger) league, will they be able to retain their independence?

An official post from Grinding Gear addressed this issue, stating that we wonโ€™t be seeing โ€œany big changes to how they operate.โ€ In addition, Tencent themselves are famous for โ€œrespecting the creative independence of the companies they invest in.โ€ So it looks like there wonโ€™t be any sweeping changes to either Grinding Gear or Path of Exile, at least not ones that they donโ€™t implement themselves.

Of anything, this acquisition might see Tencent implementing some China-specific features in the game. Otherwise, Path of Exile is maintaining their steady update schedule. At present, Grinding Gear has promised multiple expansions over the next year. Development on version 4.0.0 is underway, although beta testing for that version is still over a year off. If youโ€™ve never checked out the game, PoE is an excellent alternative to Diablo III, assuming youโ€™ve grown disillusioned with the changes made to that game since its predecessor.

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