When Torchlight Frontiers was initially announced, many franchise fans were less than thrilled. Original developer Runic Games had closed months prior, and there was uncertainty about the shift to a free to play model. Those fears seem to have resonated with the new developers at Echtra Games, a studio made up partially of Runic veterans. Earlier today, they announced that their F2P Torchlight would shift to a more traditional premium product named Torchlight 3.
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In a blog post announcing the news, the Torchlight 3 team state that the game will be familiar to fans of the original two action RPGs. While there is still multiplayer available and public towns, levels are private by default and gear is earned through gameplay and traditional progression. In addition, the real-money store is gone from the final product and players can play offline if they so choose. This will also mean that the game releases on Steam when it’s ready later this year, rather than releasing through the Arc client as originally planned.
🎉 Announcing – Torchlight Frontiers is now Torchlight III 🎉
We're incredibly excited to share this news with you today! Read up on all the awesome #TorchlightIII changes, including the move to #Steam!https://t.co/oJYP98wyqK pic.twitter.com/UEGMorXmFr
— Play Torchlight (@PlayTorchlight) January 27, 2020
The developers encourage fans to sign up for their official Discord or follow along on Twitter for further updates. Torchlight 3 is still on track for a 2020 Steam release, with a debut on consoles to follow quickly afterward.
