Grim Dawn multiplayer release in two to four weeks

Grim Dawn players have been enjoying the single player but the multiplayer for the ARPG is close to release.

In an developer blog update today, Crate Entertainment shared their progress on the game’s multiplayer component.

We now have people running around in multiplayer testing all the functionality and looking for those pesky bugs that can ruin your fun. We are getting close but there is still some work to be done before it can be released. This includes finalizing some of the multiplayer UI elements and tracking down and fixing some of the more serious bugs, such as those that could potentially corrupt your character save data. Once the major issues are taken care of, we will release it in a “play at your own risk” state for those who want to be the first to try it out and help identify any remaining issues. We are now in a process of making fixes and retesting until we can verify the major bugs have been worked out. We expect multiplayer will be ready within the next two weeks.

Work continues on other aspects of the game too including the recently revealed skill Transmuters. The downside to the development of these at this stage is that the multiplayer can’t be pushed live until these are also complete as they are “committed to the database”. The good news is that they are coming in 2.0 with the multiplayer instead of the originally planned 2.1 build. Because these two features are tied to a single release, even though the multiplayer may be complete in two weeks, it could take two to four weeks to have both the multiplayer and Transmuters complete.

Altogether, our estimate for B20 release is sometime in the next 2-4 weeks. It mainly depends on how much iteration and retesting is required on Transmuters before we feel confident about them. The main thing we want to avoid is releasing them, finding that one just is not fun / balanceable and then potentially having to remove it after players have allocated points into it. Since people can buy back the points with sufficient warning, that is not the end of the world but it is obviously not ideal. B20 also includes some significant balancing work, so it is shaping up to be a pretty big update and we are excited to finally see everyone enjoying these new features.

Crate has also started work on the Arcanist Mastery which is the final Mastery (class) before the full release of Grim Dawn.

Also coming up in the 2.0 release is Steam Cloud saving, revamped Epic and Rare items including sets, visual updates to Act 2 and the Warden’s Laboratory, Steps of Torment difficulty adjustments and of course bug fixes.

Exciting times for anyone who is playing the Early Access version.