Last Epoch owners get the Orobyss expansion free — players furious over paid classes

Eleventh Hour Games has finally chosen a monetization approach for the upcoming Orobyss expansion and unveiled future plans that have drawn player criticism.

Eleventh Hour Games confirmed that the major Orobyss expansion for Last Epoch will be provided free to anyone who purchased the game on PC before the expansion’s launch. The announcement appeared in a recent message to the community, where the studio also shared an updated development roadmap.

“Anyone who owns Last Epoch on PC prior to Orobyss’s release will receive it as a free update,” the team said. At the same time, new players and PlayStation 5 owners will be able to buy Last Epoch, all seasonal content, and Orobyss together in a single edition.

In other words, existing owners retain access to the base game’s content at no additional cost, while newcomers will be offered an “updated edition” that includes the expansion.

The move follows the studio’s admission this autumn that it had struggled to settle on a monetization model — cosmetic items alone do not cover long-term support and development costs, and the team was hesitant to charge for expansions.

At the same time, the developers revealed how extra content will be monetized. Eleventh Hour teased a new Paradox Classes concept — a system that, the team says, will allow them to experiment with mechanics and classes “in new and innovative directions.” These classes will form part of future paid DLC that will serve as the project’s monetization, though details are currently limited. The first Paradox Class will launch alongside Orobyss and will be sold separately, with more information promised closer to release.

It was this element of the announcement that sparked negative reactions from the community. Players pointed out that since 2018 the developers repeatedly pledged not to introduce paid content beyond cosmetics. As a result, recent Steam reviews have swung to “mostly negative”: users are criticizing the idea of paid classes and urging others to “move to Path of Exile 2.”

Alongside plans for paid classes, the game’s development cadence has also drawn criticism. Eleventh Hour confirmed that Last Epoch will receive two further seasons before Orobyss — a fourth season in early 2026 and a fifth late that same year — after which the expansion and the PlayStation 5 version will arrive. Players argue that two seasons are insufficient to sustain a full year’s worth of content.

The studio has not yet responded to the community’s negative feedback.

Source: iXBT.games