Blizzard"s long awaited fantasy action-RPG sequel Diablo III is set for its PC launch on May 15th. But there"s also another big game in the same genre that could be out very soon after Diablo III. It"s Torchlight II from Runic Games, which was formed a few years ago by a number of former Blizzard team members.
The original Torchlight came out in late 2010 and received lots of great reviews and, more importantly, solid sales even though it was first distributed as a digital download title. Runic Games has been working on the sequel ever since but a planned release date of late 2011 came and went.
Now Joystiq reports that, according to Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer, the company would "ideally" like to release Torchlight II about a month after Diablo III comes out, which would put Torchlight II"s launch sometime in mid-June. He added, "We"re going as fast as we can. It"ll be worth the wait, it"ll totally be worth the wait. In the long run, people will be happy we took this extra time."
The article points out that even though Torchlight II will be released for just $20, it will have a number of features that Diablo III, which will cost over twice as much, won"t have. That includes an offline mode, LAN support and mod tools for others to make their own Torchlight II levels.