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Grinding Gear Games is a developer of online games founded in 2006 and based in Auckland, New Zealand. The company's games include a range of online strategy games with role-playing games that are free to play. Grinding Gear Games' main title, Path of Exile, was released in 2013 as a free-to-play, competitive, online action-role-playing game.
In 2018, Chinese gaming and social media company Tencent acquired a majority stake in Grinding Gear Games. In response to the acquisition, Grinding Gear Games said the company would remain independent and would not change how the company operates. The acquisition came after Grinding Gear Games began offering its main game title in China. In a series of posts, Grinding Gear Games noted Tencent's history in developing similar games, and Grinding Gear Games' leadership felt Tencent would understand Grinding Gear Games' approach to developing games and respect that process.
Grinding Gear Games' first game, launched in 2013, is Path of Exile, a free-to-play online role-playing action game that was initially released for PC and won GameSpot's PC Game of the Year in 2013. Path of Exile would eventually be released for Xbox and PlayStation consoles, with a mobile version of the game under development for Android and iOS. The original game underwent a process of evolution, including thirty expansions, and would eventually win the BAFTA award for Best Evolving Game in 2020. In the game, the player must struggle to survive in a hostile online world and seek revenge, while creating their player. It offers single-player and player-versus-player gameplay.
After releasing the game, Grinding Gear Games committed to a monetization strategy that did not include requiring players to pay for game advantages through getting in-game gear, character levels, skills, or treasure needed. Instead, the company committed to monetizing by selling virtual cosmetic items and gear for characters through microtransactions, allowing players to choose to support the developer in that way.
A sequel to the original Path of Exile, Path of Exile 2, is an action RPG set years after the original game and returns the player to the same game world to seek to end corruption in the world. The game is expected to be a free-to-play online multiplayer game with co-op play for up to six players. Further, Grinding Gear Games has committed to the same expansion and monetization model of the original game for the sequel, with the new game expected to launch on PC, macOS, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.
