By Jim Rossignol on August 29th, 2011 at 12:46 pm.
An announcement on the Torchlight II site confirms that the game will ship for $20. Here’s the kind of statement that you would think more company bosses releasing PC games would include in their press release: “It’s always been our goal to provide exceptional value for the price,” says Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic Games. “Everyone who wants to play Torchlight II will be able to comfortably afford to do so, and they’ll be able to play with their friend online or via a LAN, or play single player offline, all with no further purchases.” Ha.
The Embermage page (the final class to be revealed and inevitable ranged spellcaster) is here.
29/08/2011 at 12:50 Keymonk says:
But when is it out? :(
29/08/2011 at 12:53 Enzo says:
Yeah, when? They changed the date a few times, and now I have no idea when it’s coming out.
29/08/2011 at 13:49 iniudan says:
In 2011 is the only thing fixed right now, so a maximum of 4 month I guess. =p
29/08/2011 at 16:26 Dynotaku says:
At least a few weeks before Diablo III for their sake I hope. Not trying to be mean, I want to play this, it looks great, but seriously, I’ve been waiting for D3 for 11 years.
29/08/2011 at 21:51 Mattressi says:
I was waiting for Diablo 3 for about 10 years too. Until, of course, it turned out to be crap.
I’m really looking forward to Torchlight 2 – but I’m hoping they wait a while to release it, lest I fail my subjects due to playing too much T2. I just don’t think my self-control is up to the task of not playing it :(
30/08/2011 at 03:35 Osi says:
@ Mattressi
How can you possibly say D3 will be crap when it hasnt even been released yet?
Or are you just trolling. Just sayin’.
30/08/2011 at 07:28 Mattressi says:
I can quite confidently say that it’s crap because Actiblizzion have previously announced that I won’t be able to play LAN with my friends, nor will I even be able to play singleplayer (offline). The gameplay could be decent, but the game itself will always be crap for me – the only thing I ever did in Diablo 2 was play LAN with my friends or SP. I’m dead serious – I tried online a few times, got bored after an hour or so and waited to play with my friends some more. Much of this was done on road trips and at LAN parties with a slow internet connection.
Action RPGs have always been the games that I play with friends. That’s all that I buy them for. If I wanted to play online, I’d play one of the hundreds of thousands of free MMOs. An ARPG that pretends it’s an MMO, but without any of the positive elements of an MMO (only the negatives, like DRM or pointless things like a crappy auction house) sounds pretty crap to me.
29/08/2011 at 12:53 DSR says:
Hope we will be able to buy it in a normal way without any bloatware like Steam.
I miss the old times.
29/08/2011 at 12:57 Enzo says:
I’m pretty sure they said that it’s only gonna be available digitally, and only on Steam.
29/08/2011 at 13:28 TillEulenspiegel says:
only on Steam.
Source? Google turns up nothing.
I’d be really disappointed if they don’t do direct sales again.
29/08/2011 at 13:43 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
Disregarding how steam is sometimes the singularly most acceptable DRM in the RPS community, Runic games are mostly going the indie-route, thusly making a retail sale much more difficult and steam the ideal (and arguably most successful) digital distribution partner.
29/08/2011 at 13:50 MCM says:
I hope it’s on Steam so I can immediately look and see if my friends are playing and join them, or invite my friends from other games to come play it with me.
29/08/2011 at 13:53 nofing says:
I’m pretty sure they said it will be sold via all major digital distributors, while only the Steam version will use Steamworks, just like the first one.
Oh and there will almost definitely be a retail version, since the first one is sold retail as well and it’s already available for pre-order at some retailers (like Amazon.de http://www.amazon.de/Runic-Games-Inc-Torchlight-2/dp/B0054IAHMY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314622522&sr=8-2)
29/08/2011 at 13:54 Urthman says:
The first Torchlight had pretty wide retail distribution. It was in every Wal-Mart in the USA for quite a while.
29/08/2011 at 14:05 CMaster says:
There’s a chance that TL2 will be Steamworks only for the sake of multiplayer. To my mind, it’s by far the best multiplayer solution out there. However, it does suck for people who are only interested in the singleplayer aspect.
29/08/2011 at 14:09 Bantros says:
Bloatware if your PC is a bag of shit maybe
29/08/2011 at 14:34 AMonkey says:
Steam bloatware? LOL.
29/08/2011 at 15:19 k37chup says:
this must be you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCEQZ_4V7NY
29/08/2011 at 15:24 CMaster says:
If DSR is who I think they are, then they are a rabidly anti-valve nutjob,
But equally, how for a singleplayer game is Steam anything but bloatware?
29/08/2011 at 15:47 Delusibeta says:
@CMaster: Better Steamworks than Games for Windows Live, I always say,
29/08/2011 at 16:16 CMaster says:
@Delusibeta better most things that GFWL.
As said above, I love Steamworks for multiplayer games and actually end up adding most of my non-steam games (for both MP and SP) to Steam for ease of launching and overlay (when it works). But I can’t see how anyone can suggest that for SP-only games (like say, DX:HR) mandatory Steam is anything but bloatware. (As an aside, lots of non-steamworks games bought over steam can actually be played without running Steam first – just navigate to the executable and run).
29/08/2011 at 17:05 Rhin says:
Yes, Steam is bloatware. It’s less bloated than GFWL, but it still is one of those things that takes up some time every startup, it takes some time every time you start the game, and offers annoying popups when you’re not online when it wants you to be.
That said, like a lot of other bloatware, it does have some useful features.
29/08/2011 at 18:46 Dana says:
@Rhin
Thats not what bloatware means.
29/08/2011 at 12:54 MadTinkerer says:
Ahahahahaha! In your face, Blizzard!
Between Torchlight, DOTA 2, and the many eager WoW-killer-wannabes, Blizzard is in for some rough competition. I, for one, will certainly be purchasing TL2 instead of D3.
EDIT: I did enjoy SC2, though, and look forward to various community mods and those free updates. I think I’ll wait for HotS, though.
29/08/2011 at 12:58 Anthile says:
What? Those games are months if not years apart. Not to mention Blizzard’s much higher development and marketing budget. They could sell an empty box with only Diablo 3 written on it and it would outsell Torchlight 2.
29/08/2011 at 13:01 xian says:
Torchlight 2 will end like the first game: Play through one or two times and that’s it. The lack of a secure multiplayer kills any long term motivation I might have had.
29/08/2011 at 13:12 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
xian:
sooo…? It is 20 dollars! Dont be greedy :D
29/08/2011 at 13:18 xian says:
Just saying. I will buy both anyway but D3 will (most likely) be my gaming addiction for the next years while Torchlight is nothing but a short term diversion.
29/08/2011 at 14:13 Bluris says:
(copied my comment from elsewhere)
Torchlight 2 has been in development for about two years, Diablo 3 for 2-3 times that (anyone know?). The size of the development staff is likely significantly higher for Diablo 3.
As a result D3 will likely have a longer campaign, and possibly higher replay value.
Now, not saying that that T2 will be bad, not at all, in fact I bet it will have tremendous fun-per-buck value – possibly comparable to D3.
Runic Games have to play nice to please as many potential customers as possible, Blizzard doesn’t have to kiss up – D3 will be more commercial successful than T2.
Yet, Runic Games will do good and be happy about it, Blizzard will do good as well, and we’ll have games to play.
29/08/2011 at 15:17 DK says:
“Torchlight 2 will end like the first game: Play through one or two times and that’s it. The lack of a secure multiplayer kills any long term motivation I might have had.”
And the lack of any singleplayer whatsoever in Diablo 3 kills both long AND short term motivation.
Guess what:
When a game doesn’t have hard-wired security, you can create it yourself by choosing to only play with people you know are secure.
When a game doesn’t have a singleplayer component, there is NOTHING YOU CAN DO.
It should be blatantly obvious why one is better than the other, regardless of the fact that neither is perfect.
29/08/2011 at 15:30 MadTinkerer says:
Thank you, DK. You made a point I was going to make, but you beat me to it.
Anthile, I really don’t care what outsells what. I care what I am buying, and recommending to my friends. If I cared what outsells what, I wouldn’t be discussing D3 or TL2, and would only discuss console shooters, Madden, and various Nintendo franchises. And possibly Final Fantasy.
Bluris, I don’t care how much time and effort Blizzard have put into D3. Just as I don’t care about console shooters and Madden. (I actually do care about some Nintendo franchises and Final Fantasy, and hope Squaresoft give us more PC love soon.)
Diablo 3 is not a game I plan to buy, for specific reasons heavily implied in the Torchlight press release. It shows that the makers of Torchlight are more in tune with what I want and need out of a Diablo-like than the team currently in charge of the Diablo franchise. Therefore: “In your face“.
29/08/2011 at 15:34 shoptroll says:
Eh. People who want to play D3 are still going to play D3. I’m glad Runic is taking advantage of the persistent online connection and lack of mod tools in D3 as a way to distinguish their product from the 800 lbs gorilla in the room.
I’ll be buying both because honestly I think it’s good to have competition in the market and I like what both franchises/companies have to offer.
29/08/2011 at 16:36 Urthman says:
Well Diablo 2 was a game you could replay over and over and over.
Diablo 3 is apparently so tedious and unreplayable that Blizzard completely scrapped offline single-player because they think players couldn’t bear starting a new character to play online.
29/08/2011 at 12:58 xfxian says:
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
29/08/2011 at 15:37 MadTinkerer says:
Indeed.
29/08/2011 at 12:58 Zanchito says:
20€ (damn you Steam, 1$!=1€, i’ll be paying $30 for this game) is a really cool price, instant buy for me. 30€, I really have to think to justify it. 40+€ games, maybe once in a year: Witcher 2 and that’s it. Not DX3, not Skyrim, and I love the franchises. Videogames are too expensive here, maybe they could dial back the costs and the prices.
29/08/2011 at 13:08 kikito says:
In case you’ve missed it, I’ve just purchased DX3 from Europe for 30€ here:
http://play-sc.com/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-PC-Download-Steam-Key.html
You pay, they send you a key, you validate it with Steam, and it’s just like a Steam purchase, but cheaper.
I’ve installed the game and played a bit, and it is awesome, but a bit unstable (I’ve had to reboot it 3 times already)
29/08/2011 at 13:09 beloid says:
That’s what i thought of. Many indie devs tend to get the conversion rate right, though. Here’s hoping Runic also will.
29/08/2011 at 13:14 Casimir Effect says:
Not to be a pedant for mathematical symbols but != would mean ‘Must be equal to’, whereas =/= is the sign for ‘Not equal to’.
(Ideally the ! would be above the = in the former and the latter would be a single = with a slash through.
29/08/2011 at 13:21 Tomm says:
Not to be a pedant, but for computer scientists, it’s a widely used convention that “!=” means, “not equals”.
29/08/2011 at 14:12 Casimir Effect says:
Fair point. I’m a physicist so go by how the symbols are written out rather than the corresponding code. And then LaTEX has its own stuff going on
29/08/2011 at 13:08 Zeknurn says:
Runic Games does what Blizzardon’t.
29/08/2011 at 13:17 Lagavulin says:
you are miskating.
Blizzard is working hard to get a multiplayer component that will be fonctionnal AND secured in order to ensure the online economy on DIII will be working correctly. In DII the prices were broken because of bots and dupe, but still, there was an economy. you could trade your items.
On the other hand you have smaller games like Torchlight 2, TQ, Grim Down, PoE. . . they don’t have the same goal. they know they don’t have to bother about a multi-million player basis who wants to trade online. So it’s kinda easy to offers features like LAN…
If you look at the example of Titan Quest : i think the game is great, but online you can’t exoect to play coop with strangers + you can’t trade because the multiplayer is not secured = everyone is creating items with an hero editor.
And will be the same with Grim Dawn, and Torchlight 2. That doesn’t mean they are bad games, it’s just that you can’t expect them to provide the same experience a diabloIII can offer.
Blizzard know frome xeprience that a game like diablo will be played by millions of players, and that hackers will try to dupe/bot in order to gain money from the game. Those are problems runic devs don’t have to consider at all. and Blizzard took some hard decisions in order to secure the most important features of the game that are multiplayer mode and trading system…
29/08/2011 at 14:09 Stepout says:
@Lagavulin Actually, Path of Exile does have the same goal as it’s online-only and played on secure servers.
29/08/2011 at 14:54 Ergates_Antius says:
Blizzard took some hard decisions in order to secure the most important features of the game that are multiplayer mode and trading system…
I’m kind of hoping that they’re paying more attention to the punching monsters in the face bit than the trading system…
30/08/2011 at 16:44 rocketman71 says:
“Blizzard took some hard decisions in order to secure the most important features of the game that are multiplayer mode and trading system…”
Blizzard took some easy decisions in order to secure that everybody had to go through the auction house and play online to make even more money. Wanna play alone in single player or with friends via LAN?. Fuck you, you damned pirate!.
That’s what Blizzard thinks of us nowadays. We’re just walking wallets. Anybody that thinks this has to do with cheating is just way too gullible.
29/08/2011 at 13:08 Tretiak says:
Skyrim killer!
29/08/2011 at 13:30 Gassalasca says:
Scrolls killer!
29/08/2011 at 13:35 theoriginaled says:
20 dollars is a nice pricepoint but chances are it will ONLY be worth 20 dollars like the first torchlight. It was a charming game but got dull and repetitive VERY quickly as each class only had one or two skills worth using. I havent seen any skillsets for the new classes so I can only assume that its more of the same.
30/08/2011 at 02:53 SpiderJerusalem says:
Why would you assume they wouldn’t improve on the first game’s flaws?
Also :multiplayer:
29/08/2011 at 13:48 Nero says:
Will buy on day one. This is the PC game that I’m most am looking forward to this year.
29/08/2011 at 13:49 UncleLou says:
I’ll buy both anyway, but people constantly playing Torchlight 2 off against Diablo 3 won’t end well for the former.
29/08/2011 at 13:54 aircool says:
I dunno, what I’ve seen of Diablo 3 doesn’t look particularly promising.
29/08/2011 at 14:09 UncleLou says:
At least we have seen *something*, rather than a single short promo trailer more than a year ago about a game that was supposed to be out 6 months ago.
I expect Torchlight 2 to be a nice diversion for for a couple of weeks, just like the first one was. Sending it in some sort of competition with a behemoth like Diablo 3 (which I personally think sounds great) might make a few angry internet men agree, but won’t do Runic any favours. In my opinion, of course.
29/08/2011 at 14:50 Bureaucrat says:
Eh. The length and price-point of Torchlight-the-First matches pretty perfectly my capacity to enjoy a clickfest pseudo-RPG. Diablo 3 might well be a behemoth, but not everybody is interested in behemoths of this particular type.
29/08/2011 at 14:56 UncleLou says:
Er, exactly. It’s a lower-budget, fun lot-em-up without probably much longevity, if the first is anything to go by. Most probably not really an (exclusive) alternative for those who want a little more from that genre, which is why I personally think people should stop “selling” it as such.
In short, I don’t think you’re contradicting me.
29/08/2011 at 15:31 drewski says:
I know, I know. Completely unfair to Diablo 3. More expensive, no single player, always online, pay to win…I just don’t see it competing at all.
Oh, wait. Blizzard fan boys. Never mind.
29/08/2011 at 16:05 UncleLou says:
God, I hate how “console warz” discussion culture has found its way into PC gaming.
Well done.
29/08/2011 at 13:51 aircool says:
I’d buy that for a (twenty) dollar!
29/08/2011 at 14:00 Nalano says:
No stupid 24H DRM, no stupid RMT AH, and it’s 20 bucks? SOLD!
29/08/2011 at 14:03 Ira Aduro says:
This use of reasonable prices to lure people into buying games has got to stop. First Rock of Ages, now Torchlight 2, when will we return to $60 for 4 hours of gameplay?
29/08/2011 at 14:06 Nalano says:
$60 for 4 hours of mediocre gameplay at that!
29/08/2011 at 14:50 TillEulenspiegel says:
Isn’t Homefront 2 in development?
29/08/2011 at 18:57 Ira Aduro says:
hope springs eternal then…
29/08/2011 at 14:58 Grot_Punter says:
No!!! Why did they take away the Railman! I know that the Engineer is basically it, but not in the same, lovable flavor! I was so enamored by the idea of running around in overalls, wielding a massive mallet and bashing monsters into the ground like so many railroad spikes!
29/08/2011 at 15:01 Enzo says:
Railman is still in the game, they just changed his/her name to Engineer. Nothing else was changed.
29/08/2011 at 17:05 Grot_Punter says:
Yeah, I’m aware of that, stated so in my comment. I just enjoyed the old concept and visuals so much more than just “engineer”, even if it is a very Iron Kingdoms engineer they’re running with.
30/08/2011 at 02:36 Tokamak says:
I think they mentioned having removed railways from the world, so it wouldn’t make much sense to keep the name as the “Railman.”
29/08/2011 at 15:25 drewski says:
I’m going to pre-order the hell out of this.
29/08/2011 at 15:28 nootron says:
“You’re fighting against an immovable force by complaining and being paranoid about [piracy] and all that. We figure if we’re just nice to our customers, charge a low price for our game to begin with, don’t over-burden them with crazy DRM, and customers will be nice to us too. And so far, they have been.”
Runic Games’ Max Schaefer’s response when asked about Torchlight being pirated 5 million times in China.
God I love this perspective. 1 in 1000 company heads understand this. Its not about free, its about something being accessible for the right price.
I will buy every game from Runic on principle alone.
29/08/2011 at 15:29 nootron says:
I wanted to add: Ubisoft, take a field trip to Runic Games and have a chinwag with Mr Schaefer on DRM and how to not alienate your fans :P
29/08/2011 at 15:34 drewski says:
I actually feel guilty about only paying Steam sale prices for Torchlight, considering I got a solid 240 hours of gameplay out of it, and Runic are so thoughtful about not screwing their customers.
29/08/2011 at 17:12 Nalano says:
I like this guy. It’s not about how many pie-in-the-sky sales you lost, it’s how many copies you actually sold.
Custodians and security in the school I work at have a similar philosophy: If you want kids to stop vandalizing something, instead of making it impervious to vandals (which is expensive, time-consuming and largely ineffective), make them not want to vandalize it.
30/08/2011 at 00:23 Daiv says:
What is this sanity?
Dispatch the Opinionator to bring him in line with the rest of the industry.
30/08/2011 at 07:53 f4Ri says:
Just give it time. If/when they’re as big as EA, Ubisoft and Blizzardwhatsitsface the shareholders and non dev ceos will take over and remove this attitude all together. The principle is fairly easy; the bigger you are the more you can dump on your customers, especially if you’ve got dedicated fanboys like blizzard in which case you could theoretically take an actual physical dump in their throats and they’d still pay for the privilege.
29/08/2011 at 15:35 jay35 says:
Princess Jasmine, is that you?!
29/08/2011 at 15:38 Vinraith says:
Well, that’s a day one purchase unless they do something stupid with the DRM, then.
30/08/2011 at 03:54 Bonedwarf says:
Yep, likewise.
I was already most likely going to buy it, and had assumed it was going to be at least $40 with the multiplayer added… And Diablo 3 became a non-contender the instant “always online” was announced.
But this from Runic? Yeah, like you, they’re going to have to work very hard to lose my sale now. This is a day one instabuy as it stands right now.
Runic have had my money on PC (full price, straight from Runic) AND Xbox for Torchlight. Love supporting devs who HAVE A CLUE!
29/08/2011 at 15:43 bluebomberman says:
This looks almost exactly like Torchlight, which got old real quick. I think I’ll pass.
30/08/2011 at 00:46 jaheira says:
Yeah Torchlight’s over-rated. People are championing it as an anti-Blizzard move, but they’re just kidding themselves. It won’t be in the same league as Diablo 3, I predict, either in quality or sales.
30/08/2011 at 01:42 PodX140 says:
I’ll be enjoying myself then at my cottage or on the route there/back then. Aww, D3 not have that option if you legitimately buy it?
30/08/2011 at 04:07 Bonedwarf says:
Yes, it won’t be in the same league, because it’ll be playable when your internet goes out, when you’re on a bus, train, plane etc… You’ll be able to buy $40 worth of something else after you’ve bought it, and the company behind it won’t be treating you like a criminal or a moron.
Yep, not in the same league at all.
29/08/2011 at 15:48 Lagavulin says:
@Stepout : I know that, but for the moment PoE doesn’t have any sort of trading system implemeted and devs haven’t talked too much about that either. Sames goes for end game possibilities…
What i meant is that the devs for thoses games are still relatively few and they can”t afford such big plans like blizzard does. PoE is very promising but it also has its drawbacks…
@Ergates_Antius : the two things aren’t mutually exclusive you know. Blizzard is big enough to work on those two aspect at the same time. :heink:
29/08/2011 at 16:41 Ergates_Antius says:
Yes I know – it was more a comment on the “the most important features” bit. Personally, I wouldn’t consider the trading system as one of the most important features of D3.
But I was largely being humourous – I know different people have different priorities….
29/08/2011 at 16:34 MythArcana says:
Wrap your brain around that marketing campaign, Blizzard. Runic has the great ideas and functional software which lends itself back to the ideals of times of old (the days I really miss). While Blizzard spends 2 years perfecting that one character animation, Runic already has 500 great ideas committed to code in that time.
29/08/2011 at 18:21 Cryotek says:
Goodbye Diablo 3.
29/08/2011 at 19:08 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
Got bored of both D2 and T1…I liked D1 much more, tbh. And Bastion, that is a sort of hacknslash I truly enjoy…I started playing new game plus immediately after finishing the first playthrought and its even better!
29/08/2011 at 19:21 hnnnng says:
Torchlight 2 fixes two of the main problems I had with T1: lack of character customization and lack of classes. I’m pretty stoked about this, especially with the pricetag.
If they pump it out the same month as Diablo 3, I might have to postpone D3 in favor of this. Now I just want a release-date.
29/08/2011 at 21:51 Lamellama says:
Jasmine / Embermage
30/08/2011 at 00:46 Fuxalodapus says:
Ugh. Don’t like the embermage’s current look. Guess I’m conditioned for the skimpy outfits of the old Vanquisher and other midriff baring female sorceress looks.
Still probably a day one purchase for me.
30/08/2011 at 08:14 elnalter says:
they couldve gone with a rouge from powerstone look instead of this aladdin thing
30/08/2011 at 00:39 InternetBatman says:
Torchlight was a fun little game, but I don’t think it’s quite ready to compete with Diablo. Somehow it was less atmospheric, skills came at slightly wrong times and combat wasn’t quite as satisfying. It’s a little sad that the game is in direct competition with Diablo 3 because of Blizzard’s failures as much as Runic’s successes.
That said, I hope it takes Blizzard down a peg. It won’t, but I can still hope.
02/09/2011 at 00:48 Big Daddy Dugger says:
How can anyone be willing to pay for Diablo 3 when they’ve announced that there will be the option to buy the best in game gear for real life cash? Not to mention acquiring the same gear without paying for it will likely require running the same dungeon over and over until you get a boss to fork up his 1% droprate set piece you need when you could just buy it out of their shop instantly for $3.99.