Torchlight II Interview

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on June 16th, 2012

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Was there ever really a decisive push to get Torchlight 2 out before or Diablo 3, or was that never really a consideration?

Yeah it was something that we talked about, but the only thing we really didn't want was to come out right at the same time. You know, like literally within a week or two of it's release. We didn't care if it was before or after though. Obviously some of our partners wanted us to launch before, but they also agree with the philosophy that if we rush it out, I mean, what would be the point of that right? Then you're just going to buy the game and play it until Diablo 3 comes out, and then that's all people are going to play of it ever again. So we took the path where we're going to polish the game and actually compete head-to-head for the long term, and it just comes out whenever it comes out.

Does Torchlight 2 face different challenges now that Diablo 3 is already out?

I think we actually benefit from it. It's a subject of debate within the studio and our partners but I think it actually helps us. We're a small company you know sort of indie so we draw our customers from within the gaming community. People who already buy games, look and buy our stuff. I think when someone like Blizzard comes out with something like Diablo 3 where they're doing TV commercials on ESPN, real mass market stuff they're bringing in millions of new gamers into the gaming community, and that makes our audience bigger. We're doing pre-sales on steam, and the day Diablo 3 release they shot up 40% and have stayed up. They're bringing in lots of people into this genre, and people are becoming aware of what we're doing through them. We're kind of piggybacking on their marketing.

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Are there still plans for Runic Games to make a Torchlight MMO?

Yes and no. It's still sort of in the long-range plan for us. The MMO market is changing right now and the traditional MMO is falling out of favor for a business model.

I like to think of MMOs more broadly though. Anything that puts a lot of players into the same world is an MMO. It doesn't have to conform to these ridged [rules]. It doesn't have to be exactly like World of Warcraft in every way, except in terms of the art [laughs]. When you say you're going to do an MMO that's immediately what a lot of people think. So yea it's sort of in the plans but sort of.again it falls in this category of '˜When the game ships, we'll see what the world looks like' kind of thing. Maybe the Torchlight series will suffice. Maybe people don't want a different style of multiplayer Torchlight, and this is what they want. If so then we'll just do more of this.

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With the success of the Torchlight series, Diablo 3 and the popular ARPG KickStarter projects like Path of Exile and Grim Dawn, it seems to be a renaissance for ARPGs. Do you think the interest has always been there? And do you think the market is at risk of becoming overly saturated?

I don't think so at all. For a decided simple game, ARPGs are actually very complicated to create. I think that's why there aren't a lot of them. I don't think it's based on the market at all, because whenever they do come out they sell like hotcakes. Look at Diablo 3. It's the fastest selling game on all time on the PC. It's a fertile market and I don't think one or two titles are going to saturate it.

There are so many FPS out there and no one thinks that genre is dead. Every one that's good sells like crazy. We're pretty confident that provided we can keep our quality up, there are more buyers than there are games in this genre.

Also it's been 10 years since the release of a Diablo game, and I think there's a new generation of people to introduce to the genre. Again this is where Diablo 3 can help us. They're bringing in so many new people to the genre, and so many kids are now of gamer age. We have a whole new generation to introduce to ARPGs. No one ever leaves games, once you've started playing games they become part of your life and you play forever. We're just getting more and more gamers as time goes on and since there has been such a huge gap in ARPGs, its a very fertile field to plow right now.

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