Last Epoch Owners Will Get Orobyss Expansion for Free, But Players Are Furious About Paid Classes

Eleventh Hour Games developers have finally decided on the economic model for the upcoming Orobyss expansion and revealed future plans that players did not like.

Eleventh Hour Games has confirmed that the major Orobyss expansion for Last Epoch will be free for everyone who purchased the game on PC before its release. The decision was announced in a recent address to the community, where the studio also presented an updated roadmap for the project's development.

«Anyone who owns Last Epoch on PC before the release of the Orobyss expansion will receive it as a free update,» the team said. At the same time, new players and PlayStation 5 owners will be able to purchase Last Epoch, all seasonal content, and Orobyss in a single edition.

Thus, for existing owners, the game will remain completely free in terms of the main content, and for new users, an «updated edition» with the included expansion will be presented.

This decision seems like a logical development of the studio's position, which in the fall admitted that it could not decide on a monetization model — cosmetic items do not cover the costs of supporting and developing the project in the long term, and the developers did not want to charge for add-ons.

At the same time, the developers revealed how additional content will be monetized. Eleventh Hour presented a teaser of the new Paradox Classes concept — a system that, according to the team, will allow you to experiment with mechanics and classes «in new and innovative ways». These classes will be part of future paid DLCs, which will monetize the project, but there are few details so far. The first Paradox Class will be released simultaneously with Orobyss and will be available for a separate fee, and the studio promises to reveal details closer to release.

This part of the statement caused a negative reaction from the community. Players recalled that since 2018, developers have repeatedly promised not to add paid content to the game, except for cosmetics. As a result, the latest reviews on Steam have moved into the «mostly negative» category: users criticize the idea of paid classes and call for «going to Path of Exile 2».

Against the backdrop of preparations for the introduction of paid classes, the pace of the game's development is also being criticized. Eleventh Hour confirmed that before the release of Orobyss, Last Epoch will receive two more seasons — the fourth in early 2026 and the fifth at the end of the same year, after which the expansion itself and the version for PlayStation 5 will be released. Players believe that two seasons are not enough to provide the project with content for the whole year.

The studio has not yet commented on the negative reaction from the community.