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Path of Exile 2 dev says it's fixing a bug that's partying up players with randoms, but for now 'consider it a feature to enhance your social experience'

Path of Exile 2's Early Access launch is plagued by server issues, preventing many players from logging in. A minor bug automatically parties players together, prompting the developers to jokingly call it a 'social enhancement feature' while working on a fix.

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Path of Exile 2 has a feature that can automatically party you up with random players. Oh wait, that's a bug, but developer Grinding Gear Games says you can go ahead and "consider it a feature" until it's fixed.

Grinding Gear's long-awaited action-RPG sequel finally launched into Early Access today, and just as the studio projected in advance, it's facing some pretty serious server issues preventing many players from even being able to log in.

Much less serious is a bug that apparently parties up people who are already in parties with "random players." Frankly, I'm not sure this relatively insignificant bug would even warrant a full news story if it weren't for Grinding Gear's suggestion that maybe it's not so bad a thing to make some new friends, ya loners.

"We're aware of an issue with players in parties sometimes being placed into parties with other random players," reads a tweet from the official Path of Exile Twitter account. "Until we fix this, consider it a feature to enhance your social experience!"

We're aware of an issue with players in parties sometimes being placed into parties with other random players. Until we fix this, consider it a feature to enhance your social experienceDecember 6, 2024

Now, Grinding Gear is obviously joshin' us here. It's just acknowledging the bug and promising a fix in an amusing way, which is somewhat commendable given the amount of much more serious issues it has on its plate.

The most recent update from Grinding Gear is that the login issue should be resolved now for Steam users specifically. There's still no word on a timeline for resolution on other platforms, but I've reached out to the studio for clarification and will update this article if I hear back.

**Path of Exile 2 has nearly doubled the first game's Steam player record and people can't even play yet – and apparently SteamDB crashed when everyone went to check.