Former CLG CEO explains why PoE devs are more passionate than Blizzard
During his overlayed stream of the Path of Exile convention, Exilecon, current N3RDFUSION CEO and former Counter Logic Gaming executive Devin Nash laid out the reasons why he thinks Grinding Gear Games are doing a much better job than Blizzard.
For the many fans that moved on from Diablo to Path of Exile, this past weekend’s ExileCon was quite the exciting weekend, with many claiming that the approach developers GGG took was the right one compared to Blizzard.
While watching the even on stream, Devin Nash passionately drove home what he thinks is the primary difference between Blizzard and Grinding Gear Games developers: passion.
“These are some of the last people who actually care about gaming,” Nash said. “People who are passionate. People who don’t need to monetize b******t f*****g transactions and bleed you for everything you’re worth.”
“They deserve every single level of their success,” he continued. “It makes me so mad when I looked at this compared to BlizzCon.”
At ExileCon, GGG announced several new projects, including a sequel in Path of Exile 2, a new expansion in Path of Exile: Conquerors of the Atlas, and a mobile version. After the mobile announcement, Grinding Gear CEO Chris Wilson came out and cracked yet another joke at Blizzard’s expense.
During the mobile announcement, Nash highlighted that what GGG were doing was “such a good way” of unveiling a mobile game like that.
While Blizzard’s announcement of Diablo 4 went over well at the most recent BlizzCon, their announcement of Diablo Immortal at last year’s event infamously went awry, as a lukewarm crowded booed and scoffed at the developers when they realized the only Diablo announcement was about a mobile game.
Despite how surprising the PoE mobile game announcement was, fans were in even bigger shock about the sequel, which almost no one had any idea was coming. The sequel is a long way away though, as GGG don’t intend to start their beta for it until late next year.
While the developers at Grinding Gear Games have admitted that there will be microtransactions in Path of Exile mobile, they’ve also said that their biggest priority is to make a great game first, and make money on it second.
No information yet on when Path of Exile mobile will hit app stores, but it was available to try out on the show floor of ExileCon.
Diablo Immortal is still available for pre-registration on app stores, and their lead developer, whose question about phones went viral, recently explained why they didn’t appear on the BlizzCon 2019 main stage.