Torchlight MMO announced as on hold. Torchlight 2 to be released in spring 2011 first trailer from Gamescom 2010

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Torchlight 2 announced
Torchlight 2 has been announced by developer Runic Games via their official web-site. They also revealed that they are delaying the Torchlight MMO until Torchlight 2 is complete.

Torchlight 2 will be released in Spring of 2011 and adds a number of new features including co-op, an updated and improved interface, and characters that are fully customizable.

“The most exciting new feature of Torchlight II is the multiplayer element. Play with your friends, and use the free peer-to-peer matchmaking service to meet new players of a similar level and interest. Together players will discover expansive randomized outdoor areas and deep ominous caverns; random instanced and persistent dungeons, a huge variety of all new monsters and villains, endless variations of loot to find, and quests to complete. Players journey through the perilous Overworld, enjoying all new weather features, time of day events, and a rich and cunning story to drive gameplay.”

Key features of Torchlight 2 include:

  • Multiplayer – Play with your friends over a local area network, or over the Internet. A free matchmaking peer-to-peer service lets you make new friends for exciting co-op play.
  • Customizable Characters – Players create and customize a character from one of four classes available and choose an animal companion. Through cosmetic, class, and gender choices, skill path decisions, and the treasures they acquire, each character can be custom-tailored to each player’s needs.
  • Moddability – Torchlight II will release with an updated version of TorchEd, the Torchlight editor. Players have the option to create their own mods, adding even more content to the world. You and your friends can download the same mod and play together!
  • New User Interface – Torchlight II boasts an entirely new, improved user interface, designed to be easier than ever for new players to pick up and play. Thanks to this intuitive interface, players have immediate access to a rich and varied world, with little experience necessary.
  • Overworld Areas – Torchlight II has large randomized overworld areas to explore with weather, time of day cycles, and random events that provide players with even more content to experience.
  • Random Dungeons – Delve into randomly generated dungeons within the game at any time for extra experience and rare loot. Dungeons in Torchlight II have even more branching paths to explore with friends filled with random events, rewards and dangers.
  • Retirement System – Once characters are sufficiently leveled up, they can “retire” and bestow specific benefits and perks onto new characters.
  • Pets – Players choose a pet to accompany them. Pets level up along with the player, and help in battle, learn spells, carry items, and perform a variety of support services.
  • Fishing – Fishing returns in the sequel! Players can take a break from the high-energy pace of adventuring to relax by one of the many fishing holes and see what they can catch. Fish have unique benefits for the player and pet, while a number of other rewards can also be discovered.

    Here is the official Gamescom 2010 trailer with the first gameplay footage of Torchlight 2 in action!

    Although this is great news for fans of Torchlight, it’s also sad that the MMO game is being delayed. Although maybe that’s a good thing considering that the more time is used developing a game, the better that game will probably be.

    According to the Runic’s CEO Max Schaefer, delaying the MMO was all about giving people what they wanted instead of making them wait.

    “I think that we were overwhelmed by the response after Torchlight came out,” Schaefer told Gamasutra. “Everyone said they loved it, and there were generally good reviews, and I think that literally every comment in every review said it would’ve been better with co-op. The more we thought about it, we could give people what they’re asking for, and give them a nice, co-op Torchlight experience a lot faster than we could do an MMO. So it felt like there was a vacuum there. We decided to do it, because it’d make the MMO better in the long run because we’ll have a little more experience with making a multiplayer Torchlight, and it’ll give people what they want in the meantime.

    “We kind of ran out of reasons not to do it. To the extent we make a profit on it, [profits will] be going into helping out the MMO, so that’s a big part of it. But mainly, the motivation is just giving the players what they want.”

    Schaefer also stated that they would love to bring Torchlight to consoles, but the company is too small at the moment to run all three projects.

    “We talk about it a lot. The limiting factor on that is that we’re a small studio, and we want to stay small,” he said. “So it limits the vigor for which we should pursue some of these things. But it’s definitely something we’re talking about and working on. We think Torchlight would make a great console game. It’s just about make all the puzzle pieces fit.”

    Via VG247