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Joystiq

Perfect World grabs majority share in Torchlight developer

by Alexander Sliwinski on May 17th 2010 5:30PM

Perfect World, a China-based developer and publisher of several MMOs, revealed today it has acquired "a majority stake" in Runic Games for approximately $8.4 million. Runic is the studio that spawned from the ashes of Hellgate: London's Flagship Studios and is best-known for Torchlight, its single-player Diablo-inspired action-RPG. Previously, in April 2009, Runic had entered an agreement that made Perfect World the exclusive worldwide publisher of Torchlight.

Considering Perfect World is primarily an MMO publisher, it's fairly obvious the company gobbled up the majority stake in Runic in anticipation of the developer's Torchlight MMO, which is reportedly about two years away. With this acquisition, Perfect World has stated that it seeks to "create global titles" -- so more Hot Dance Party MMOs then?

Source

Tags: business, perfect-world, perfect-world-entertainment, runic-games, torchlight, torchlight-mmo

Reader Comments (24)

Torchlight is a great game, congrats Runic

Its one of the most repetitive games I've ever played, there is no story, only grind, all you ever need to do is use one AoE ability throughout the game, boss fights are shit simple, even the better looking bosses, is like fighting a prettier bigger version of a normal mob. They have a lot of ability balancing and a lot more stories to tell to make this world interesting.

@ dood

but for the price? I think thats a good trade off considering how some games suck harder and going for twice as much...we know the game is not perfect but 20 dollars? It balances out in a way.

Think they're gearing up to use Runic to compete with Blizzard?

Regardless of their intentions, I doubt that would happen. Blizzard is too big a beast to take down.

You'd need 10-25 companies using some kind of raid to take Blizzard down.

Raid? Like a redundant array of inexpensive developers? I think you might be on to something...

Well acronymed!

Oh oh... this isn't going to end well.

Runic seemed like a nice bunch with a passion for gaming and development that wasn't utterly overshadowed by corporate greed. I'm willing to bet several pairs of socks this will change dramatically as Perfect World gets their claws into them.

I've seen the kind of micro-transaction riddled cash grabs PW foists on the public. It's sad if they influence the Torchlight MMO. I actually had really high hopes for it.

Weird that a game many compare to WoW in visuals and gameplay is now wanting to compete with them...

To be honest I haven't played the game, but it does seem odd to me as an outsider looking in.

We have enough Asian-style cash-shop grindfests on our hands.. I really don't want another one. I was looking forward to what Runic would come up with, but not so much anymore.

Let's just hope they keep their feet out of the Torchlight MMO bucket, I really don't want to see Runic become another polarizing developer along the lines of Flagship and Cryptic. I guess by next month, we'll either hear things are going great, or we'll start getting reports of developers and/or founders jumping ship and starting new studios.

"Diablo-inspired action-RPG", well of course, one of the co-designers of Diablo1 and Diablo 2 leads the team that made Torchrlight and also.. and because of that, Torchlight shines! I love that game, and for the price of $20 ...its just a good game. Even though Im not a MMO player, I have to try this new game they're working on a try... I love these style of games and I cant wait for Diablo-mutha-frakin three too!! :O

I really enjoy Torchlight! Also due to the fact that it goes on sale quite often (I got it for $5, a steal!)

Wish it had multiplayer though, still an awesome game.

Where did that screenshot come from? The HUD in the real game looks completely different. Modded HUD?

I know nothing about the game, maybe it's a beta screenshot?

It's a screenshot from an early build of the game.

I haven't played torchlight for a while but is it just me or does that screenshot look better than the actual game? (I ran it on max easily too)

Not only does it look better than that, the screenshot there is from a very old alpha build.

Here are my thoughts on the subject: Runic wants to put out another game before the MMO, but doing so would mean PW wouldn't make much off of them in the meantime. To make sure they have plenty of profits coming in, PW purchased most of the shares of Runic Games stock available, so that when they release an expansion or sequel before the MMO, PW will still make money as that stock grows in value.

Im not sure where I heard this but I think they said torchlight was primarily a way to fund the MMO in development .. but idk its awesome anyway

@Jacksy Nope, Torchlight was originally a side-product of the MMO's development, with PW funding the MMO, but it sold so well they started to put their own profits into it as well. PW is still the main source of funding anyways

As long as their IP is secure then good for Runic. They are a relatively small studio and PWE is quite hungry, more than willing to invest, and dying to have a smash outside of the East.

However, I can't help but be remember what happened to Flagship or, more importantly, the fate of Mythos. (ritually sacrificed to some other team in a far-off land)

I don't expect that to happen with Torchlight and/or Perfect World Entertainment and I hope that any Flagship transplants currently at Runic are extra vigilant in that regard but I just can't help but worry without more details.

LOOT LOOT LOOT

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Perfect World grabs majority share in Torchlight developer

Reader Comments (24)

Posted: May 17th 2010 5:45PM Sled said

Posted: May 17th 2010 7:43PM ructus said

Posted: May 17th 2010 7:56PM Jacksy said

Posted: May 17th 2010 5:53PM Haggard said

Posted: May 17th 2010 7:07PM ch3burashka said

Posted: May 17th 2010 7:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 18th 2010 12:48PM Alphathon said

Posted: May 19th 2010 9:54PM Haggard said

Posted: May 17th 2010 5:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 17th 2010 5:58PM Xoonaka said

Posted: May 17th 2010 6:00PM Durinthal said

Posted: May 17th 2010 6:10PM Granger said

Posted: May 17th 2010 6:07PM Jacksy said

Posted: May 17th 2010 6:38PM BoBsS said

Posted: May 17th 2010 7:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 17th 2010 8:15PM Dafrety said

Posted: May 17th 2010 10:12PM quiggy said

Posted: May 17th 2010 7:02PM darkfocus said

Posted: May 17th 2010 8:21PM deSadist said

Posted: May 18th 2010 4:42AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 18th 2010 5:54AM Jacksy said

Posted: May 18th 2010 6:51AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 18th 2010 5:29PM FOI said

Posted: May 20th 2010 5:45PM Zoidberg said

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