A True Sequel After All
For a long while, Torchlight III was but a dream. Runic Games washed their hands of the franchise, and the next developer to carry the torch wanted to take things in a very different direction. Torchlight Frontiers was a free-to-play MMO kind of experience, a sharp left turn for the franchise thus far. Then Echtra Games undid all that, giving Frontiers a huge facelift and calling it Torchlight III. The sequel rides again!
Frontiers was meant to take the series in a bold new direction, one that leaned into the modern F2P/MMO paradigm. Players would gain levels by amassing better gear, there would be a massive multiplayer focus, and nothing would ever be the same. Years of testing and refinement revealed that this… wouldn’t work? Turns out the game just really wanted to be Torchlight III.
According to Echtra CEO Max Schaefer, alpha tester feedback revealed that “Torchlight Frontiers was meant to be a true successor to Torchlight I and II.” To that end, more or less all of the major changes are being rolled back. No more free-to-play, no more MMO trappings, and no more levels tied to gear. No, this is going to be a proper Torchlight game, through and through. Torchlight III is set for release on Steam sometime this summer, with console ports to come some time later. You can check out the announcement trailer below!