Scoring a big launch is every game dev studio’s dream, but sometimes things go so well that it becomes a problem.
That is exactly what is happening at Grinding Gear Games, who droppedPath of Exile2on December 6.
By their admission,the developers expected around 1 million sales early on, but the game has wildly overperformed in the storefronts.
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Path of Exile 2came out on Steam and the Epic Game Store, plus thePlayStation5, and the Xbox Series X and S. On Steam alone, the game hit a peak of 578,569concurrent playerson Sunday.
The folks running the other storefronts are not as forthcoming with information, but the point is clear: this wasa massive launch.
Most players associate a launch like this with longer server queues and occasional performance issues, but according to Grinding Gear Games, it is the support department that took the biggest hit.
When Support Needs Supporting
Ina forum post, Grinding Gear Games detailed that"such a huge influx of players also generates an enormous amount of support requests".
Somesupportrequests take over a day to reply, whereas the studio has a goal of replying within the same day, and ideally within the hour whenever possible.
To get around this problem,the company has begun “hiring new people for support to be able to handle the increased load”, with hopes of clearing (or at least decreasing) the backlog before things reach a critical level.
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It is not just the human factor that is struggling though. According to the Grinding Gear Games' Community Team, the ticketing system is “severely overloaded”. This has led to some reports failing to reach their destination.
While theticketing issueappears to have been solved, Grinding Gear Games still asks that playersrefrain from sending follow-up requests or replying to support when not strictly necessary.
Considering how brutal publishers have been about the commercial performance of games, the kind ofproblems plaguingPath of Exile 2right now are the best you could wish for.
The developers have taken a proactive approach to the situation and are keeping players in the loop, which helps buy some goodwill until the issue is solved.
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