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Torchlight Developer Runic Joins Perfect World

We've got a lot of fans of indie Diablo clone Torchlight around the office, and it sounds like we're not the only ones. Chinese MMO publisher Perfect World has acquired a majority stake in Torchlight developer Runic Games.

Perfect World has likely made this decision in equal parts due to the surprise success of Torchlight and in anticipation of Runic's next game, an MMO set in the Torchlight universe. Perfect World also published Torchlight before they had the majority stake.

According to Joystiq, Perfect World has stated that part of their intent with this move is to "create global titles," expanding their market beyond the Chinese MMOs they have become known for. Here's hoping it pays off for Runic, a team that has seen previous struggles in attempts to make an MMO back when they were under the name Flagship Studios.

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Comments
  • umm....cool?

  • MMO publisher?  I didn't realize a company would ever set out to make more than one.

  • Good move for Perfect World owners, with Runic's gameplay and PW's marketing they might have a juggernaut of a game.

  • Staff

    @DuckReconMajor: They're not alone. NCSoft is another publisher that more or less only does MMOs.

  • Oh wow.  So the publisher maintains servers and whatnot while developers are free to just worry about content and fixes?

  • I love me some Torchlight. Best $5 I've spent on Steam in a long while. Just wish it was multiplayer. Still a great game. Best of luck to Runic!

  • Best money I've spent on Steam would be a big, heft $0 for Portal. :)

  • I just bought this game, haven't played it yet but 10 bucks seemed too good to pass up.  Looking forward to the weekend, that is after I finish Red Dead and Alan Wake.

  • Crap!!! Haha I was thinking about buying TorchLight for $10 but I was too busy with finals. Now the deal is over and it's back up to $20. Oh well... Guess I'll just wait for Diablo 3.

  • ?

  • good game that I never got to play much. Too many good titles and not enough time to play them all.

  • Yeap... here's hoping for better things this time around. I put all my faith in Hellgate London based entirely upon my love for the guys involved in Diablo 2 on the team... got the collectors edition, even bought a lifetime subscription... ouch :(

  • I hope that this is going to be a good thing for Runic - I'm a huge fan of Torchlight and I am really looking forward to the MMO.

  • ????.