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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday November 05 2017, @08:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the another-light-extinguished dept.

Runic Games, a Seattle-area game studio which developed the Diablo-inspired Torchlight series and its latest title Hob, has been shut down by its Chinese parent company Perfect World Entertainment:

Runic Games, the studio behind Torchlight, Torchlight II, and Hob, has been shut down. In a statement published on its official website studio head Marsh Lefler confirmed the news and thanked fans for their support.

[...] For fans of the Torchlight series, Lefler said there "will be some news coming" and he also noted that "community and multiplayer services will keep running even after the studio's lights go off."

[...] Runic is the second studio to be shuttered by its parent company, Chinese publisher Perfect World Entertainment. Motiga, the developer of Gigantic, announced its closure shortly before Runic. In a statement to Kotaku, Perfect World Entertainment said Motiga "has reduced the staff of its studio" but its game "will continue to be available on our platforms." With regards to Runic, it said the decision was part of "the company's continued strategy to focus on online games as a service."

If you like the Diablo games, I'd suggest trying out Torchlight I/II (Windows, OS X, Linux) or Path of Exile (Windows and Xbox One).


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @02:42AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @02:42AM (#592779)

    Probably, but let's wait for the announcement. They might do something cool like open source the servers or just grant a license for people to run their own servers.

    But, since they didn't go the Blizzard route and force everything to be multiplayer, we should be able to run the game forever.

  • (Score: 2) by pbnjoe on Monday November 06 2017, @04:48AM (1 child)

    by pbnjoe (313) on Monday November 06 2017, @04:48AM (#592859) Journal

    That would be nice, but would require work from a now defunct studio: at minimum a patch to remove the (I'm assuming) hardcoded Runic IP, plus a big code dump.

    But how would the accounts get handled? There's web servers and everything behind that system. They wouldn't dump account info, so hosts have to run a secure public web page for sign-ups and everyone has to create new accounts for each server they connect to, or someone has to take it upon themselves to gain trust (considering it involves emails and passwords) and attention in an attempt to centralize? Doable, but a massive pain in the butt I'd imagine.

    Or, with way more (free) work, they patch out the hardcoded IP, account system, and implement a direct IP setup? Complicated business.

    Also, the way it's written, it reads as though there's something new on the horizon, not that they're going to do work on/for the games. Who knows if PWE would even let 'em touch the source anymore.

    On a positive note, perhaps this is hinting at a bunch of people from the studio planning to band together and make a spiritual successor?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @10:06AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @10:06AM (#592964)

      Torchlight 1 or 2 source code was leaked.

      Hellgate: London

      Star Trek Online (2012 data+src, 2013 src only)
      Neverwinter Online (2012 data+src, Win 7+ due to stack errors on XP)

      Dozens of others.