Runic Games: Torchlight 3 Might Ship Before Diablo 3

[vansau]

Runic Games: Torchlight 3 Might Ship Before Diablo 3

Thanks to the one-year development cycle of the Torchlight games, gamers might see Torchlight 3 before Diablo 3 hits stores.

Torchlight 2 is <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102577-Torchlight-2-Coming-Next-Year-UPDATED>due out next Spring, but Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer is apparently already thinking about the third installment in the franchise. According to Schaefer, gamers might get to see Torchlight 3 before Blizzard releases <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Diablo-III-Pc/dp/B00178630A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1282672379&sr=8-1>Diablo 3. The scary thing is that the man is actually serious.

Speaking to Joystiq, Schaefer explained that this hypothesis was based on the fact that Runic games has a goal to never get bigger than 40 employees. This "efficient" team size helps ensure that the studio's games have had a relatively quick development schedule (both <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Encore-15980-Torchlight/dp/B001B5U80K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1282674370&sr=8-1>Torchlight games have taken less than a year to create).

Meanwhile, according to Schaefer, "[Blizzard has] an impossible task. Blizzard can not get away with doing a Torchlight 1. If they put out a single player game, an RPG that's kinda stripped down for $20, people would say, 'What the hell happened to Blizzard?' They don't have that luxury. Everything has to be super epic. More epic than anything that's come before, more epic than World of Warcraft. They have to do that. It puts them in a really tough spot, I don't envy them. It has to be perfect."

When asked if he was being serious about getting another Torchlight game out before Blizzard releases Diablo 3, Schaefer confirmed his opinion: "I really think we will, I'm not joking about it. I'll be the first to buy Diablo 3, I'm a huge fan. I just know what it's like over there."

Of course, Max Schaefer knows what it's like working on the Diablo games for Blizzard based on firsthand experience. He was one of the co-founders of <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_North>Blizzard North, the studio that developed <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Diablo-Battlechest-new-version-Mac/dp/B0002BQN7Q/ref=pd_sim_vg_9>Diablo and Diablo II.

Source: Joystiq

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[Onyx Oblivion]

Fine by me...

I don't want Diablo 3 anymore. I used to...but now I have Torchlight!

 

[Weaver]

ummm well...
now I love Torchlight but the games need to be big advancements in the series, they can't just be the same game again.

 

[Deathfish15]

That guy has some balls, but then he's right. Blizzard took 10 years to get out SC II, and people still were very critical of it (because it had such a crappy single player story). With Diablo III, I hope Blizzard hires some better writers. And, as for Torchlight, it's fun, but it's too....clicky (then again, Diablo is probably like that, I've never touched the thing).

 

[oranger]

Also, the guy doesn't seem bitter at all. not at ALL. surprising really, considering what happened to his old team.

 

[MisterShine]

One of the great mysteries of my life has to deal with Diablo and Torchlight. I loved Blizzard games, but I always disliked diablo. Then I picked up the [del]shameless rip off[/del] inspired by Torchlight for a couple bucks off steam and I really really enjoyed it.

Was it all the modding? Hmm. I'm sure this is one of those mysteries of the universe that mortals were not ever meant to know, and if we ever did find out, it would surely drive us mad at the revelation.

 

[Echo136]

I love Torchlight but unless they impliment something drastic after the second one I think ill skip it.

 

[Grey_Focks]

I'm just gonna go with quality > quantity, but I did like Torchlight...even though it got old painfully fast, and no multiplayer for that type of game is a big downer.

 

[Marowit]

He's got one thing right, Diablo 3 has to be as perfect as is possible. The thing he neatly leaves out is that every Blizzard game has to be that way. I agree with him about not being envious of Blizzard's position with regard to polish, but I disagree with his assertion that Blizzard has an impossible task. I don't think, and no articles on Diablo 3 so far have indicated, that Blizzard is planning on launching a stripped down single-player game.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

So? We're going to see a lot of things before Diablo 3. Like the flying car for instance. Or the first man on mars. And the first colony on mars. And first alien contact. Then the first intergalactic war. Then there's the invention of immortality of coarse. The evolution of man into bird people...

 

[qbanknight]

Knowing Starcraft 2 take 12 years just to remake the same game, I wouldn't pass Schaefer to release Torchlight 3 before Blizzard makes D3

 

[yoyo13rom]

Finally a person that has some sense in him.
And to think people think Blizzard is shooting themselves in the foot by working on a new MMOG.
I mean that might be get the beta out in like a decade!

 

[Fortuan]

I'm definitely excited about Diablo 3 but I have to say that the torchlight business model is more appealing considering I feel so cheated waiting for D3... years... I pre-ordered it in 2007!

 

[Aeshi]

I think I'll stick with Diablo III,sure it's not gonna be out for a while,but I have faith in Blizzard (who seems to be one of the few game designers who don't try to rush games out as quickly as possible)

 

[samsonguy920]

So quantity is better than quality? I'm confused by the point he is trying to make. And if that is his point then Bobby Kotick has a job for him. Activision loves sucking a franchise dry with as many sequences of a game as possible.
Yes it has taken this long to get Diablo 3, but Blizzard has yet to let us down on what we have to wait for from them. Heck, I want to get into some Diablo 2 now.

 

[veloper]

So? It's not like Blizzard hasn't had anything other than massive financial success with long development cycles.

Diablo3 may not be for me, but Blizzard obviously know what they're doing.

 

[Buccura]

Umm... you know why Blizzard takes so long with their games right? Because they take the time to polish them and make them great products. I'm not saying Torchlight is bad by any means, I'm just saying if they actually rush it with the intent to get Torchlight THREE out before Diablo 3, I feel it can only hurt the product.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Damn you, I want my Diablo III! >_<

..But it also makes sense. Make the best Diablo game you can, and give up cheap placebo games Torchlight in the process of waiting. Beh.

 

[dochmbi]

That guy has some balls, but then he's right. Blizzard took 10 years to get out SC II, and people still were very critical of it (because it had such a crappy single player story). With Diablo III, I hope Blizzard hires some better writers. And, as for Torchlight, it's fun, but it's too....clicky (then again, Diablo is probably like that, I've never touched the thing).

Really, crappy singleplayer story? Where did you read that?