Torchlight studio Runic shut down, Gigantic devs additionally virtually closed

The homeowners of Torchlight builders Runic Games, the Chinese free-to-play-focused writer Perfect World Entertainment, confirmed at the moment that it has shut down Runic’s Seattle studio. Seeing as that’s Runic’s solely studio, er, that’s them mainly gone – although their video games will stay on. This comes barely one month after Runic launched Hob.

Perfect World have additionally laid off most the group at Motiga, the studio behind Gigantic – which solely launched in July. Perfect World say these are unconnected however sheesh, not a very good week to be owned by Perfect World.

“I’m sorry to say that today will be Runic’s last day open,” studio head Marsh Lefler stated in a press release on their site. “For those that love the Torchlight series, there will be some news coming. And for all our fans, our community and multiplayer services will keep running even after the studio’s lights go off.”

As for Motiga, they’re not completely closed however most individuals have been laid off. Perfect World stated in a press release to Kotaku that “A core team of developers remains at Motiga, who will work with us to support the game and its players, including moving full steam ahead with the upcoming November update and future content.”

That assertion additionally says that the choice to shut Runic was “part of the company’s continued strategy to focus on online games as a service.” Ah, that outdated chestnut.

Runic’s swansong, Hob, was a plain outdated singleplayer sport one our John fairly preferred components of – although others, not a lot. Our John stated in his Hob review:

“Hob is like a beautiful example of how to make a third-person action game. Like a filmmaker who has learned every detail of cinematography, direction, lighting and set dressing, but never thought to care about the script. In that, I found it impossible to escape the sense of lack that pervades its beauty, both in an overall motivation (beyond ‘because it’s there’), and in the ‘why?’ of everything you do. It’s fun to play, it’s often extremely clever, but – well – it lacks at the same time too.”

Best of luck to everybody affected by these layoffs and closures.

Runic co-founder Travis Baldree, who left Runic in 2014 and with fellow co-founder Erich Schaefer to start out a brand new studio and make Rebel Galaxy, has remembered the studio with a very good blast of trivia on Twitter. My favourites:

[2/?] Runic Games was first registered as ‘Surprise Truck’ and I obtained many calls asking if ‘Surprise Trucking’ may do a cross-country transfer.

— Travis Baldree (@TwinStickGames) November 3, 2017

[6/?] We had potato weapons at a Christmas social gathering and that was the worst concept in historical past after we returned from break to rotting potato pellets.

— Travis Baldree (@TwinStickGames) November 3, 2017

[20/?] co-founding and working Runic for 6-odd years was probably the most taxing factor I’ve ever accomplished, however the individuals there have been price it.

— Travis Baldree (@TwinStickGames) November 3, 2017