Echtra Games ceases work on Torchlight 3

Echtra Games has ceased work on action RPG Torchlight 3.

In a statement published to the Torchlight 3 website, Echtra Games chief Max Schaefer said Echtra Games had handed Torchlight 3 back to IP owner Perfect World Entertainment following the developer's acquisition by FarmVille publisher Zynga in March.

"As you may have heard in the news, we were acquired by Zynga back on March 2nd," Schaefer said.

"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.

"We absolutely enjoyed our time with Torchlight 3, and only hope for the best for the future of the franchise. We are grateful for the opportunity to have worked on it. But more than that, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of you who took this journey with us. We had ups and downs, but through it all, we learned so much, and a lot of that credit goes to all of you. Through thick and thin, you gave generously of your time, provided expert and valuable feedback, and made the trip enjoyable and worthwhile for all of us at Echtra.

"We hope you'll keep tabs on us in the future, because we're doing some incredibly exciting things that you'll be very interested in. We look forward to seeing you on the other side, and will certainly keep tabs on Torchlight 3. Thank you again for everything, we love you, we love Torchlight, and we will always cherish the memories!"

Torchlight 3's spring update is the final one from Echtra Games. Schaefer this update has killed "countless bugs, made several UI fixes and enhancements, and added lots of quality of life improvements".

"And very significantly, we've improved performance to a meaningful degree on every platform. In short, we feel like this puts Torchlight 3 in a good place."

However, fans are concerned about the future of Torchlight 3 now Echtra Games' has left it behind. Will owner Perfect World Entertainment, which also publishes Magic Legends and Star Trek Online, draft in a new studio to work on the game? The company has yet to say.

Echtra Games was founded in 2016 by Schaefer, a co-founder of original Torchlight 1 and 2 developer Runic Games and veteran of the Diablo series. Torchlight 3 began life as Torchlight Frontiers, a free-to-play game that didn't go down particularly well. Echtra Games made significant changes before announcing a turnaround: Torchlight Frontiers was no longer free-to-play and it was no longer Torchlight Frontiers - it had become Torchlight 3. Torchlight 3 then came out last year, and Donlan called it "a bit of a mess".

As for Echtra Games, it's working with CSR Racing developer NaturalMotion on "a new, yet to be announced RPG for cross-platform play".

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