What was once a promising next generation of Torchlight in the MMORPG space ended up fizzling so hard that even its developer is getting out of the game. That’s right: Echtra Games announced this week that it’s pulling out of Torchlight III entirely, handing off the development and handling of the multiplayer ARPG to Perfect World. The news isn’t a total shock, since we’d already covered the Zynga acquisition of the studio and speculated on whether Torchlight III would remain with PWE – and that turns out to be exactly what’s going on.
“This is also a sad message because it marks the end of Echtra Games’ work on Torchlight III,” Max Schaefer wrote. “As you may have heard in the news, we were acquired by Zynga back on March 2nd. As a result of this transition, we are moving on to new (and exciting) things, and we will be passing the baton back to our partners at Perfect World.”
This game-changing news came at the same time that Torchlight III dropped its Cursed Captain update. This month’s patch adds the titular class, which has “summoning skills, giant cannons salvaged from ships to blast enemies in the way, and a salty, ghostly personality.” Players also have new pets, contracts, housing items, and cosmetics to collect. Echtra, on the way out the door, said that the patch improved performance enough that “this puts Torchlight III in a good place.”
