Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games has told Eurogamer there's an approximately 65 percent chance the game will be released in full this year. Remember, PoE 2 is currently only available in unfinished, early access form.The comments come from Path of Exile 2 game director, and GGG co-founder, Jonathan Rogers, who was speaking to me after a media briefing for the imminent (and jam packed) 0.20 early access update. During the briefing he told the assembled press that he was "very keen" to get the game done this year and would be "very disappointed" should he not be able to. "We might slip," he added. "But it's still very much my intention to try and get the game finished this year."I pressed him on these comments afterwards to see how realistic a full launch this year really is. "I think it is quite possible," Rogers told me, "but not, like, 90 percent. I'm thinking a 65 percent chance of getting it done this year. That's my current feeling about it. I have a schedule that will get us there. It's a question of can we actually meet that schedule, which will be challenging but not impossible."Should the game not make it out this year, though, we won't have much longer to wait. "Yes, absolutely," Rogers said. "If it wasn't December, it would be March kind of thing."Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt gameplay trailer.Watch on YouTubeOne of the reasons I was sceptical about the date was because it's taken the game four months to get to patch 0.2, which launches 4th April, so there will only be eight months left of the year to get to version 1.0. It doesn't seem like long enough, not if the other updates are of a similar size, which Rogers said they will be - "if not larger in some cases".But I'm missing a crucial piece of the equation, apparently."If we didn't have one or two of [the classes] during early access, that wouldn't be the end of the world.""It's worth understanding that, sure, there's a bunch of stuff going in 0.20, but also there's a giant team of people working on Act 4 that isn't represented here, so there's a lot of content going on in the background," he said. "And also, there's huge numbers of monsters and things like that - that we've done a lot of work on but aren't finished - that are sitting there waiting to come out. So there's more work there waiting in the wings that will make that accelerate. It isn't just the case that we've made three acts and now we need to start on the next three. A lot of work - much of the work - has been done for the remaining three acts."The intention is to release those missing story acts - Acts 4 to 6 - during the early access period, probably one at a time. "There certainly needs to be new content in the 1.0 release, so we do need to do that stuff there, but it's probably going to be the case that we want to release those acts - at least acts four and five - one at a time," he said. "But it isn't set in stone - we can change our mind about that."Some things, however, will be held back for the game's full release. Some classes, for instance. The early access build has six of 12 planned classes in it, and 0.20 will introduce the seventh, the Huntress, but again, this doesn't leave a lot of time to finish and release five classes more. The new Huntress class. She can also summon a Rhoa mount and ride around on it - in combat too. But if she were to fall off it during the fight, the fall can prove fatal. You have to keep a careful eye on your stagger bar. | Image credit: Grinding Gear Games"I suspect we're probably likely to not have all of them for full release," Rogers told me, "but we'll see. It depends on how things go and where things end up. Obviously I'd like to get them all in, but they do take a long time to make, and the most important thing for full release is that we have the full campaign and there's all the content that we need and all that sort of stuff."It's not like we've got a shortage of classes, right? If we didn't have one or two of them during early access, that wouldn't be the end of the world. We're doing all right. We'll try to get them all in but if we don't then whatever: it is what it is."Path of Exile 2 update 0.2 launches for PC and consoles on 4th April at 8pm BST. Besides adding the new Huntress class, who throws spears and has a unique parry mechanic and intriguing bleed abilities, the update also significantly reshapes and revamps the endgame. The laborious towers have been reworked so they're less laborious and more exciting, and there's more content to encounter and more variety to it.GGG is also addressing a lack of loot by pumping around 100 new unique items into the game, as well as new crafting options, new skills, new class ascendency options - the witch can become a lich! - new support gems and more. There's even a cool new enemy type that's effectively an AI player, capable of dodge-rolling and all the things you can do, and when they die - if they die (they're apparently very challenging) - they drop some of their stuff. Grinding Gear Games showcased Path of Exile 2 patch 0.2 in detail on Twitch.Path of Exile 2 arrived in early access in December last year and rocketed to nearly a million concurrent players - a target Grinding Gear Games now has its eyes set on for the game's full release.

Grinding Gear Games apparently didn't expect action role-playing game Path of Exile 2 to do as well as it did when it launched in early access late last year.The New Zealand-based company suspected that the 25 entrance fee, there temporarily while the game is in open development in early access (it will eventually be a free to play game), would put people off. But it didn't. At its peak, Path of Exile 2 had between 800,000 and 900,000 concurrent players. It was, I'm told, the company's biggest ever release."It was absolutely 100 percent a success," company co-founder and game director Jonathan Rogers told me in an interview. "As we started to get closer to release and see pre-sales and stuff like that, suddenly it was like oh crap, this is looking like it might be one of our biggest releases ever, and then it did indeed turn out to be. And that is indeed our largest release by quite a lot that we've ever done."But intense popularity can change things. What was once intended as a way for dedicated fans to help shape a project ended up feeling more like a full-scale release, which meant development priorities had to change. "And you saw that early on where we started doing a bunch of changes, like nerfing stuff that needed to be nerfed," Rogers said.Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt gameplay trailer.Watch on YouTube"We immediately ran into the situation we would normally expect in the full released game, which is a bunch of players are like, 'oh you're breaking my build', so we had to realise, okay, we have to treat this like it's a released game in this regard and be a bit more careful," he said. Less experimenting, more treating it like a live service operation."Whenever you've got players, it derails what your plans are," Rogers added, "and it has to. It's good that it does because it forces you immediately to be responding to what the game needs, which now becomes very obvious because you've got actual players playing it." Devs don't have the time to test some things as intensely as players, collectively, do. That's why we're seeing a big push to expand areas like the endgame now, for example."I would be incredibly disappointed if we weren't cracking a million [concurrent players] for the full release."The other side of intense popularity is unexpected stories related to your game such as the headline-grabbing revelation that Elon Musk paid someone to boost his Path of Exile 2 account - play his character for him - for some reason. Presumably bragging rights.This appears to be against the game's Terms of Service - players can't make money by performing services in the game, as a booster would - but Musk doesn't seem to have been reprimanded. So I asked Rogers what the procedure was for dealing with suspected cases of boosting such as this. "I don't really want to comment about that whole drama, to be honest," he said.To which I asked him what he thought more broadly of Path of Exile 2 being in the news in this way. "I don't know. It was kind of weird," he said. "But it is what it is."Since release, the concurrent player numbers for Path of Exile 2 have significantly dropped off; a quick glance at Steam's Most Played chart shows a high point of around 25,000 players today. But this doesn't worry Rogers."No, no, not at all. Not at all," he said. "Because the thing is, ultimately, the way we've always developed our game is that it's seasonal. The way people play our game is that they come, they play for a month, they enjoy what they do, they leave, then they come back after the season ends." The new Huntress class. She can also summon a Rhoa mount and ride around on it - in combat too. But if she were to fall off it during the fight, the fall can prove fatal. You have to keep a careful eye on your stagger bar. | Image credit: Grinding Gear GamesThere's a pattern to it, Rogers has come to realise. Player numbers dip after your initial release, dipping at around update 0.2, which is what we're getting next week, and then from 0.3 onwards they start to rise again. "This is what happens with action-RPGs," he said. That's what happened with every market GGG launched Path of Exile 1 in.He's confident, then, Path of Exile 2 can go even bigger than early access when it launches in full, potentially this year - and if not this year then shortly after, in early 2026. "100 percent it will be [bigger]," he said. "And the reason for that is because, for that one, you've got the fact that it's going free, and there are a lot of people, of course, who will try a game once it's free, and then they'll discover they enjoy it. I have no doubt it will be bigger."Look," he added, "I would be incredibly disappointed if we weren't cracking a million [concurrent players] for the full release, and honestly, I think we can do better than that."Path of Exile 2 launched in early access in December last year, and I reviewed it, and loved it. It's an action-RPG that considerably ups the risk, making for a more frugal and perilous campaign than in genre-relative, Diablo 4. "Soulslike thrills combine with sky-high production values to make Path of Exile 2 a hugely impressive package, even in early access," I wrote in my Path of Exile 2 early access review.Update 0.2, which is dubbed Dawn of the Hunt and due next week (4th April), brings a significant amount of new content to the game, including a considerable rework of the endgame, a brand new Huntress class to play as, scores of new items, monsters, and encounters, new ascendency class options, and more. Grinding Gear Games showcased Path of Exile 2 patch 0.2 in detail on Twitch.

Los Angeles Blender Meeting Sat Mar 29 Celebrating 4.4 By futurehack on March 27, 2025 Usermeetings Catch up with LA Blenderheads this Saturday to celebrate Blender 4.4, hear about cool Blender projects, and socialize with your peers.Meeting topics include Blender new features along with AI mesh creation/training, combining normal maps, using Graphite with Blender, and more. We are meeting in-person and online and hope to see you there.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube800kDeveloper Badgerhammer Games and publisher Playtonic Friends have announced that Dunk Dunk, the ridiculous arcade basketball game, will dribble onto the Switch on 8th May 2025.Featuring cameos from titles like Yooka-Laylee, Overcooked, Elsie, Demon Turf, and more, Dunk Dunk looks to be the perfect game to boot up with a few mates, a beer or two, and some tasty snacks. The premise is simple: you and up to three other players will need to compete to see who can achieve the most slam dunks in a single match.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube800kWatch on YouTube Yet with ridiculous physics, absurd characters, and a plethora of unique cosmetic items to collect, it certainly doesn't look like your average game of basketball. Frankly, we can't wait to give it a shot.Let's check out the key features:- EASY TO PICK UP Plays like your favourite platformer with familiar and simple controls meaning anyone can take to the court and start dunking.- AIM & THROW Total 360 analogue arm control allows you to AIM, THROW and slam DUNK the ball at the exact angle you want.- BLOCK & DEFLECT Defend your goal! Extend your whole body for a stretchy block or deflection to keep your opponents from scoring. Or, become a platform to help your teammates reach that hoop.- FEINT & SHIELD Fool your opponent with a fake throw or shield the ball by holding it out of your opponent's reach.- SOLO, CO-OP & AND PVP MODES Play solo, co-op or PvP with a friend in Quick Match, or against increasingly harder opponents in Galaxy Tour, Challenge or Cup modes. Or take on a friend, or up to 16 friends, in local multiplayer across the Quick Match, Mutator Madness and Tournament modes.- CUSTOMISE YOUR DUNKER Want to play as a purple-robo-vampire-shark? We got it covered. Customise your characters with hundreds of different body parts and more than 2 and a half million procedural team and player names.- DUNK ACROSS THE UNIVERSE Play across 8 unique arenas from all over the universe. From an underwater lab to dinosaur times and a marooned space station, each arena has its own special features.Images: Playtonic FriendsWhat are your thoughts on this one? Will you be adding Dunk Dunk to your library when it drops in May? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.

Well I never!Nintendo has sneakily confirmed the mysterious new 'C' button for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.As spotted by VGC, the new Apple and Android store listings for the Nintendo Today app contains a small image of the Switch 2. At first glance, it's the same image we've been seeing everywhere since the console was revealed in January, but at a closer look, you can see that the new button Nintendo had previously blanked out is now adorned with the letter 'C'.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

President Trump is slapping 25% tariffs on all cars imported to the United States, including from our immediate North American neighbors. Hes also placed a 25% tariff on certain parts used to build cars. Its a decision that will likely supercharge the cost of new and used cars, but its also a gift to Tesla, the company run by Elon Musk, his biggest financial supporter in the presidential election.The new tariff regime comes at an auspicious time for Tesla. The company is dealing with the fallout of Musks promotion of far-right ideology and his involvement with the unpopular Department of Government Efficiency, which has sparked protests around the world. Tesla has recently relied on promotions and price cuts to boost sales, and yet it still sold fewer EVs in 2024 than it did in 2023 and is off to a rough start in 2025.New tariffs could shift that calculus, at least in the U.S. Tesla builds all of its cars destined for the North American market in the U.S. at factories in Fremont, California, and Austin, Texas. That means none of the cars it sells in the U.S. will be subject to the 25% vehicle import tax.Tesla does import around 20% to 30% of the components used to build those cars, so that will causesome headache. Musk admitted on X that Tesla is NOT unscathed by these tariffs and claimed they will have a significant impact. But the companys long-standing effort to establish local supply chains near its factories is now being rewarded.Essentially every other automaker is in a worse position than Tesla, and the tariffs will especially affect competing EVs. Around 80% of the cars Ford sells in the U.S. are built domestically. But it makes the all-electric Mustang Mach-E and the popular (and far more affordable) Maverick hybrid pickup truck in Mexico.General Motors, meanwhile, builds its Blazer and Equinox EVs in Mexico. Hyundai has found increasing success with its electric vehicles in the U.S. market, but nearly all of those are built in South Korea.Much like Tesla, upstart electric automakers like Rivian and Lucid Motors wont have to worry about the vehicle import tariffs because they make their EVs in Illinois and Arizona, respectively. Like Tesla, they import parts that will be subject to tariffs but they are in a worse position to absorb those costs since both companies are still losing buckets of money on every EV they sell.This sets up a scenario where other EVs may see price increases greater than any Tesla might implement. That price separation could become even more of a boon to Tesla when it rolls out its mysterious new lower-cost EV this year something the company has said will happen in the next few months.Of course, Trump announced these tariffs after weeks of waffling on whether he would implement them in the first place. The president has claimed these will be permanent. But like so many other things he proposes, that could always change.

HoneyBook, a startup last valued in late 2021 at $2.4 billion, told TechCrunch that it hit $140 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR).This makes HoneyBook one of the few startups with peak-VC-era valuations to report their financials after the market cooled.Many startups that raised in 2021 and have not raised since then remain under pressure to generate the revenue needed to validate their previously inflated valuations, and many may not survive much longer.But HoneyBook is doing so well, it sees no reason to still keep its revenue metrics secret, says HoneyBook CEO and co-founder, Oz Alon.HoneyBook offers business management software for independent service-based entrepreneurs such as photographers, event planners, and interior designers. Its last raise was a $155 million Series E from Tiger Global Management about three and a half years ago.Given that HoneyBook is still valued at $2.4 billion, the latest ARR figure implies a valuation multiple of about 17 times ARR.While there are no hard-and-fast rules for valuing private companies, investors say that late-stage pre-AI era software companies are generally priced not much differently from their public market comparables. Meritech SaaS Index shows that companies growing at 25% or more a year are now priced at a median of 13 times their ARR.So what could possibly justify the slightly higher-than-average multiple for HoneyBook? One word: AI. This week, the company introduced new AI functionality that helps users decide how to price services and serve their customers better.The company claims it is uniquely positioned to help entrepreneurs make business decisions with AI because it has data on how similar small business owners price their services and grow their client lists.HoneyBooks AI is embedded into its current offering that includes a CRM, handles billing and payments, and gives eligible users access to the funds for business growth.Jeff Crowe, senior managing partner at Norwest and a HoneyBook investor, believes the company can turbo-charge its business with AI.Solopreneurs, like photographers, dont have the time or the business savvy to think strategically about how to grow their business, Crowe said.The hope is that the new functionality will help HoneyBooks existing users grow their own businesses, and as a result, the startup will make more money from the larger volume of transactions it processes.

Sodick Co., a Japanese manufacturer of electric discharge machines, has exercised its call option to acquire additional shares of Prima Additive, a metal 3D printer manufacturer. This agreement follows its initial acquisition of a 9.5% minority stake in 2024. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the coming months.The acquisition highlights the technological and industrial synergies between the two companies, particularly in laser-based additive manufacturing. A key objective of the agreement is to advance research and development in this field. Under the terms of the agreement, Prima Additive will continue operating from its headquarters in Italy, with its current leadership team, including CEO Paolo Calefati, remaining in place to support Sodicks growth in advanced laser technologies.With the metal 3D printing industry projected to grow at a CAGR of 24% over the next decade, this partnership aims to drive innovation in high-precision, laser-based manufacturing technologies.Prima Additives Print Genius 250 3D printer. Image via Prima Additive. Strategic Alignment in Laser-Based Additive ManufacturingSodick has been involved in metal 3D printing since 2014, primarily focusing on mold manufacturing, including plastic and die-casting molds, where 3D cooling channels enhance performance. The company has mainly developed this business within Japan, leveraging its existing sales network. In recent years, the trend toward mass production of structural components through gigacasting in the automotive industry has driven growing business demand.Prima Additive, established in 2018, has developed a range of metal 3D printers primarily targeting the European market. Its offerings include laser powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition with metal powder, and directed energy deposition with metal wire, along with advanced laser technologies for material processing. The company is also engaged in research and development, participating in various EU and Italian research and innovation projects focused on advanced manufacturing systems, automation, and digital transformation. Prima Additive operates across several industries, including aerospace, automotive, marine, medical, dental, energy, and jewelry.With the Japanese government supporting domestic production of complex components via metal 3D printing, Prima Additive emphasizes that its diverse product range will play a key role in the growth of the Japanese market.Sodicks LPM325S. Photo via: SodickThe Rise of Multi-Laser TechnologyThe metal 3D printing sector is experiencing rapid advancements in multi-laser technologies, aimed at enhancing production speed, scalability, and efficiency. A report by market intelligence firm CONTEXT highlighted the rise of the laser wars in 2023, where manufacturers are integrating increasing numbers of lasers into 3D printing systems to gain a competitive edge.At TCT Asia 2025, China-based manufacturer Farsoon showcased two significant advancements in industrial metal additive manufacturing: the FS1521M-U and Beam Shaping Technology. The FS1521M-U now supports up to 32 500W fiber lasers, combined with a 3,862L build volume, enabling faster, high-quality mass production while reducing material waste and improving economic manufacturing. Meanwhile, the new laser beam shaping technology optimizes laser spot profiles, enhancing speed, detail, and overall part quality.Who won the 2024 3D Printing Industry Awards?Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news.You can also follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content.Featured image showsSodicks LPM325S. Photo via: SodickPaloma DuranPaloma Duran holds a BA in International Relations and an MA in Journalism. Specializing in writing, podcasting, and content and event creation, she works across politics, energy, mining, and technology. With a passion for global trends, Paloma is particularly interested in the impact of technology like 3D printing on shaping our future.

Built in 1889 at the same time as the Central Falls City Hall across Broad Street, this former fire station in Central Falls, Rhode Island, is a great example of late 19th century architecture for a civic use. The fire station was built in the dense Central Falls village, before it separated from Lincoln, creating their own city. The brick, Queen Anne style structure features a unique mansard roof which is broken by a series of pedimented dormers. The original arched doors have since been infilled, but maintain the original openings, awaiting a thoughtful restoration. The fire station was designed by Pawtucket-based architect, Albert Humes. Due to ever-growing fire trucks, the historic station was eventually deemed obsolete, and a new station was built elsewhere. Today, the former Broad Street Fire Station is occupied as the Morabeza Health Center.

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