From “All Future Content Free” to Paid Classes: Last Epoch’s New Paradox
Eleventh Hour Games has confirmed that Last Epoch: Orobyss will be a free expansion for existing PC owners, with a big catch. In the official roadmap post “Last Epoch’s Season 4 and Beyond”, Game Director Judd Cobler (u/moxjet200) spells it out: PC players who already own the game get the expansion as a free update, while the first “Paradox Class” launches as paid DLC alongside it, introducing a new Paradox Class category that the post clearly frames as an ongoing thing.
On paper, that’s “free expansion, optional paid class.” But for long-time supporters, this is exactly the kind of monetization creep we worried about when Krafton bought EHG. In my previous piece, “Last Epoch Devs Bought by Krafton — Fans Fear Another Subnautica 2,” I wrote about how players were concerned that a big publisher, especially Krafton, would eventually push the game toward more aggressive monetization. Paid, gameplay-defining classes are about as core as it gets.
What EHG Used to Say
To understand why veteran players are so angry, you have to line up EHG’s old statements with what’s happening now.
Back in 2019, during the Beta Trailer & Release Date Announcement, the official messaging was simple and comforting. EHG told players that Last Epoch would “continue to be supported with additional free content including explorable areas, new features, new mechanics, items, and much more.” They also drew a clean line for ongoing revenue, stating that “the only in-game purchases available will be purely cosmetic and pet-related store items.” For early adopters, the picture strongly suggested a simple deal: pay once, get future content, and fund the game via cosmetics, very similar to how Path of Exile has positioned its monetization.
That same philosophy was echoed later in a Reddit AMA, where Cobler talked about keeping a pay-to-play box model supported by cosmetics rather than selling power.
That language got even stronger in 2022, when the Official Last Epoch General FAQ was published on the forums. The line that stuck with the community is blunt: “We want to avoid any sort of expansion pack box prices that may result in splitting up players. As such we intend to offer all future content free of charge.” For a lot of us who backed the game early, that didn’t feel like a loose idea on a whiteboard; it read like a promise about how Last Epoch would do business.
That leaves an uncomfortable question hanging in the air. For roughly six years, EHG told players some version of “buy the box, get the content, cosmetics keep the lights on.” Now, with paid classes on the roadmap, we’re left asking what changed. Are rising costs, unprofitable seasons, and a shrinking peak player count forcing their hand? Is it just the reality of running a much larger studio, or is there quiet pressure from Krafton’s side to find new revenue?
Looking at SteamDB, Last Epoch hit around 260,000 concurrent players during its 1.0 launch week in late February 2024, then roughly 150,000 when Season 2: Tombs of the Erased launched on April 17, 2025, and about 80,000 with Season 3: Beneath Ancient Skies on August 21, 2025. The step down from 260k → 150k → 80k doesn’t prove anything on its own, but it does help explain why veteran players see Paradox Classes less as a harmless experiment and more as a reaction to a game that isn’t growing the way it was supposed to, a possible late pivot toward squeezing more monetization out of a smaller peak audience.
What They’re Saying Now
Fast-forward to October 2025, after the Krafton acquisition, and Cobler finally addresses the old plan in his “PS5 & LE: Orobyss Follow-up From Judd”. “…our goal was to not charge for any content, but our cosmetic sales have not been enough to cover our own development costs over the long term.” It’s an honest line, and a clear admission that the promise is being walked back.
A few weeks later, in the Season 4 & Beyond roadmap, that walk-back becomes concrete: he introduces Paradox Classes as “a fully alternate playable class” and confirms “the first one will debut alongside the upcoming expansion as paid DLC for players who want to explore new playstyles.” That’s not a cosmetic or a stash tab; it’s an entire class category turned into premium content, a shift many long-time players read as the moment years of “all future content free” messaging quietly expired. And, most likely, the first of many new paid “Paradox” classes.
The “Paradox Class” Paradox
This is where the name almost writes the headline for you. There’s a built-in paradox to selling a new class in a PvE ARPG like Last Epoch:
- If the Paradox Class is weak or buggy, why are players expected to pay for it?
- If the Paradox Class is strong and meta-defining, then you’ve effectively turned it into pay-to-win (or pay-to-compete), because the best builds and ladder races will lean toward the paid option.
That’s the real “Paradox” here: either the paid class isn’t worth buying, or it’s too good not to buy. EHG is trying to thread a needle where Paradox Classes are exciting enough to sell, but somehow not so powerful that they feel mandatory.
We’ve already seen how messy that balance can get. Diablo III’s Rise of the Necromancer charged $14.99 for a single new class; GameSpot summed it up by saying that if not for the price, it would be easy to recommend. Effectively, you were mostly paying for a stronger, fresher way to play the same content. (Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer, GameSpot reviews.)
Diablo IV went a step further with Vessel of Hatred, where the new Spiritborn class is locked behind the paid expansion and marketed as the “apex predator of the jungle.” Very quickly, players were posting threads calling the expansion “pay to win” because the Spiritborn felt overtuned compared to the launch roster. (“Diablo 4 Expansion is pay to win” on r/diablo4)
Last Epoch is now walking into the same minefield. If Paradox Classes are weak, they’re a pointless paid extra, losing twice—first by burning trust with a loyal base, and second by failing to sell. If they’re strong, they become exactly what EHG spent years saying they didn’t, and wouldn’t, want to sell; a gameplay advantage that only paying players get.
“Krafton Won’t Direct Monetization” – You Actually Believe That?
When Krafton acquired Eleventh Hour Games, Cobler tried to calm everyone down in the announcement thread “A New Chapter for Eleventh Hour Games” and its discussion. In follow-up comments, he acknowledged that as part of an acquisition, Krafton has “ultimate authority,” but reassured players that they “don’t want to direct the game, monetization, hiring, or anything” as long as EHG can handle it.
On paper, this is still “EHG’s decision.” In practice, the timeline looks rough; seasons failing to turn a profit, acquisition by a big publisher, then a pivot away from “all future content free” into paid expansions (for some players) and paid class DLC for everyone. Even if no one at Krafton ever sent an email titled “Monetize More,” this is exactly the kind of move players associate with publisher pressure, especially when the studio itself admits cosmetics weren’t enough to cover costs.
A Dimmer and Uncertain Future
None of this technically erases the “plan” language from old FAQs, plans can change. But when those plans were sold for years as a core piece of Last Epoch’s identity (“all future content free of charge”), it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the community feels like the social contract has been broken.
New players might shrug it off as just another ARPG finding its monetization model. The people who backed the game since it was a Reddit post, followed the Kickstarter, and watched every FAQ update remember something different—a studio that repeatedly insisted future content would be covered by the box price and cosmetics, not sliced into paid classes. With Paradox Classes, EHG isn’t just selling a new way to play, it’s selling a very public test of whether those early promises still mean anything.
For the latest Last Epoch news, keep an eye on Icy Veins, where we’ll break down news as it happens!