Diablo rival Last Epoch is breaking an old promise and will charge money for new classes in the future. Here’s the background to the change of course.
Last Epoch is actually considered one of the strongest competitors for Diablo 4 and Path of Exile. The action RPG has earned an excellent reputation thanks to its deep class system and direct line to the community.
But the mood has now shifted dramatically: developer Eleventh Hour Games has announced that it will charge money for future character classes.
Breaking the Kickstarter promise
The bone of contention is the announcement of the first major expansion, called Orobyss, which is planned for 2026. While the expansion itself will be free for existing players, a new type of character class, called “Paradox Classes,” will be subject to a fee.
This directly contradicts the promises made by the studio during the game’s funding campaign. At the time, Eleventh Hour Games clearly promised on Kickstarter:
“The only form of real-money microtransactions Last Epoch will ever have are cosmetic in nature.”
Furthermore, it was stated that a one-time payment was all a player would need to spend to get the full Last Epoch experience and be on equal footing with other players. The fact that game-relevant content is now disappearing behind a paywall is therefore a huge breach of trust.
Financial reasons force change of course
Judd Cobler, CEO of Eleventh Hour Games, confirmed the change of course and justified it with the economic reality of the studio. In a forum post, he explained that the first three seasons of Last Epoch had not been profitable.
The original vision of financing the game purely through the sale of cosmetic items did not work out. According to Cobler, the revenue from the in-game store no longer covers the ongoing development costs in the long term. Alternative sources of income must therefore be tapped to ensure the game’s continued existence and further development.
The reaction from the gaming community was not long in coming: On Steam, recent reviews have slipped to a “balanced” status, with only about 42 percent of new reviews being positive – a stark contrast to the game’s previous “very positive” overall rating.
The players’ criticisms:
- There is a fear that the new paid classes could be deliberately made stronger than the standard classes in order to boost sales figures.
- Many players say that the game is still struggling with bugs, faulty tooltips, and unfinished skills in the existing classes. The fact that resources are now being poured into paid content instead of fixing the base game is causing discontent.
- The community is also drawing comparisons to Warhammer 40k: Darktide, where paid classes have thrown the balancing off.
The role of Krafton
The situation among fans was already tense, as Eleventh Hour Games was acquired by Krafton in July of this year. The Korean publisher recently announced its intention to become an “AI-first company.” This has fueled concerns that Last Epoch could be dominated by inferior AI content or more aggressive monetization by the parent company in the future.
Cobler attempted to allay these concerns. He emphasized that nothing would change despite the acquisition:
“There has also been a lot of discussion about Krafton’s recent statements on AI-first and what this could mean for EHG. To be clear, our development approach is not changing.
We remain focused on developing Last Epoch in the same way as before, with the same hands-on design philosophy. To support this, we are hiring employees from various specialist areas.”
It will be some time before the Orobyss expansion and the controversial paid classes are released. The release is not scheduled until 2026, after Seasons 4 and 5. Season 4 is set to start in early 2026.
Now we have to wait and see whether Eleventh Hour Games can strike a fair balance between free and paid classes, or whether the community’s fears will prove to be true. Until then, the studio must try to regain the trust it has lost – and that is likely to be difficult given the current mood.
