Torchlight 3’s Spring Update will be the last from developer Echtra games. Last March, Echtra was purchased by Farmville publisher Zynga who put the developer to work making a brand new RPG with fellow Zynga studio NaturalMotion. Echtra still loved their game enough to make sure it was “in a good place” before handing it over to Perfect World to do with as they please.
“As you may have heard in the news, we were acquired by Zynga back on March 2nd,” Echtra CEO Max Schaefer wrote in the recent patch notes. “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 III, and only hope for the best for the future of the franchise.”
Torchlight 3 began life as Torchlight Frontiers, a free-to-play MMO, but transitioned back to a more traditional premium model midway through development after negative player feedback to the F2P elements during the game’s closed alpha. It was eventually released in October last year to mostly tepid reviews, with most of the criticism saying Torchlight 3 still felt like a free-to-play MMO even after being turned into a premium title.
Since then, numerous content updates have fleshed out Torchlight 3 so that it can stand properly with its predecessors as a true action RPG. It even launched on the Nintendo Switch, too.
Echtra isn’t leaving Torchlight 3 without a sendoff, however. “We’ve killed countless bugs, made several UI fixes and enhancements, and added lots of quality of life improvements,” wrote Schaefer. “And very significantly, we’ve improved performance to a meaningful degree on every platform.”
Torchlight 3’s Summer Update also adds the Cursed Captain class, a summoner that can bring back their fallen crew and even cast a spectral version of their sunken ship to attack their enemies. The update also brings new wardrobes, Fort props, Legendary weapons and armor, new pets, and the long-requested inventory sorting function.
You can read the full patch notes over on the Torchlight 3 website. Perfect World has not stated whether development of Torchlight 3 will continue or with what studio.
