Tag Archives: runic games

Runic has gathered together a compelling body of evidence suggesting Armed Heroes Online developer EGLS ripped a large number of assets directly from Torchlight. EGLS’s response was a flat denial, but Runic boss Travis Baldree told PC Gamer he has no doubt regarding the alleged plagiarism and is seeking to have Armed Heroes Online removed from the Canadian App Store. The whole report is pretty damning; click through for side-by-side comparisons and other intriguing similarities like identical, misspelled filenames. Whoops.

Runic boss Max Schaefer has said Blizzard originally intended to develop Diablo III as an MMO. Speaking with Games.on.net, Schaefer, who was the executive producer on Diablo and Diablo II, also said he was rather pleased when he found out the studio would be implementing always-online and auction houses into the game. “[Runic] already decided we were kinda going the opposite way with that, ” he said, “so when they came out with those announcements it was good for us because we could draw some distinctions between the two games.” According to Schaefer, pre-sales of Torchlight II on Steam went up 40% the day Diablo III released, and have remained steady.

Although we still don’t have a firm release date, you can pre-purchase Torchlight II on Steam right now. The $20 price tag includes a giftable copy of the original, which is still well worth playing, as well as a key to access the Neverwinter closed beta scheduled for later this yet. The dungeon crawling sequel is expected once the initial Diablo III madness dies down, perhaps as early as June.

Thanks, PC Gamer.

Runic has released a video for the final pet reveal in Torchlight II. Below the break, come face-to-face with “the fearsome” Papillon, which is a digital recreation the studio’s office mascot, Falcor the dog. Still no release date, but that’s one really, cute dog.

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Runic Games CEO Max Schaffer has told Joystiq it wants to “ideally” release Torchlight II around a month after the release of Diablo III, but noted it won’t race Blizzard to the finish line.

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Runic has released a video showing some of the pets available in Torchlight II. Some will look familiar to you, others are new. There’s even a blog post on the official site, which details each critter and provides a look at it’s furriness – unless of course it has feathers or scales. Looks awesome. Now all we need is a release date, please.

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Runic games have posted a blog reassuring fans that their plans for Torchlight II won’t be swayed or effected by Blizzard’s announcement of a release date for Diablo III.

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Yeah, you tell ‘em! We don’t need no stinkin’ boxes or discs! Not as long as Runic Games can continue to sell millions of copies of Torchlight digitally, right?! More »

Runic Games co-founder and CEO Max Schaefer has said the firm chose Perfect World Entertainment as its partner for the Torchlight MMO due to the Chinese company’s experience with the genre.

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Ahead of a US House Committee discussion on SOPA next week, Firefall studio Red 5 and Destructoid will go offline on Monday for a 24 hour period in protest.

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Torchlight 2 has been officially delayed, according to a post from Runic Games president Travis Baldree on the game’s official website.

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Runic Games has officially priced Torchlight 2 at $20, and has revealed the final class in the game as the Embermage. Previously announced classes were the Berserker, Engineer, and Outlander. Runic CEO Max Schaefer has said the price will allow everyone to “comfortably afford,” to play the game “via a LAN, or play single player offline, all with no further purchase.” There still isn’t a set release date for the game, but it is still on target for 2011. Thanks, Joystiq.

“That’s obviously still in the plan. But is it the next thing or is it something beyond that? We just don’t know. We have a lot of good ideas for the MMO, we just aren’t committing to any kind of schedule yet. If Torchlight 2 blows up on PC and it’s the biggest thing since sliced bread we’ll probably want to give more attention to that before heading into the MMO world.” – Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer to Eurogamer.

Despite the success of the original game on the console network, Runic has revealed technical limitations will keep Torchlight 2 off Xbox Live Arcade for now.

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Runic Games has announced Torchlight has now sold 1 million copies across all platforms since being released in October 2009.

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Runic boss Max Schaefer has Torchlight has been pirated over 5 million times in China, but since it knew such a thing was an inevitably in the Asian market, they see it as a way to promote the upcoming MMO based on the series.

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Those interested in Torchlight II may wish to head on over to Runic Games’ webiste and check out lead level designer Patrick Blank’s blog on creating the in-game worlds.

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Developer Runic Games has a launched a new regular feature on the Torchlight II site that focuses on the game’s creatures.

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Runic boss Max Schafer has confirmed that the Torchlight MMO won’t require a subscription to play.

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Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer has commented on the upcoming Torchlight MMO’s most troubling and obvious competitors – Diablo III and World of Warcraft.

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