First of all, I’m just as happy as everyone else who has been anxiously anticipating Torchlight II that the game finally has a release date. Unfortunately, that date happens to be September 20th, a mere 48 hours after the launch of Borderlands 2! I’m not sure why it was ever a concern as to when Torchlight II launched in relation to Diablo III, when the actual release date is still going to conflict with a like minded game. Sigh. I guess I’ll play this sometime after Christmas.
Regardless, developer Runic Games addressed their post-launch plans with the press at PAX Prime in Seattle this weekend, and the only things in the pipeline right now are an inevitable Mac port and subsequent patches to maintain the balance/polish/support of the game. The one thing they were a tad reluctant to address is a possible console port. The original game released on PC to much critical and commercial acclaim, and then eventually did pretty well on Xbox Live via an eventual port. However, due to the complex nature of everything they are adding to this upcoming sequel, it seems as if they aren’t confident that will happen this time around.
That’s kind of a bummer, but not the end of the world I suppose. The game played fine on a gamepad for the most part, but one can’t deny that this is inherently a PC gamer’s game, from the controls to the visuals, so you can’t blame them for focusing their efforts there. It’s just a damn shame that we’ll all be forced to choose between this and Borderlands 2 so close together.
Sorry, Torchlight II…I haven’t exactly been shy about my extreme enthusiasm for Borderlands 2. I’ll get to you when the dust loot settles.
Runic’s post-Torchlight 2 plans: Mac port, patches, and a trip to the mountains [Joystiq]
