Grinding Gear Games is a video game developer and the largest video game company in New Zealand.[2][3][4] Founded in 2006, the Auckland company has produced two games, Path of Exile, and its sequel, Path of Exile 2. Having started as an independent developer, the company was majority acquired by Chinese technology company Tencent in 2018, after Tencent had published Path of Exile in China in 2017. In 2025 Grinding Gear Games had 240 staff in New Zealand and paid almost NZ$100 million in dividends to Tencent that year.
History
Grinding Gear Games was founded in 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand, by friends Chris Wilson and Jonathan Rogers, who met while studying computer science at the University of Auckland.[5] They started the business in Wilson's garage in New Lynn.