4 years after buying the studio, Zynga has confirmed with IGN that Torchlight 3 developer Echtra Video games is being closed.
“Zynga has made the tough determination to stop operations at its Echtra studio, ending growth on future titles and decreasing roles,” the corporate advised the location. “This determination is a part of a strategic realignment of the corporate’s sources and priorities. We’ll work carefully with impacted staff so they’re handled with the utmost respect and consideration as we navigate this tough course of.”
Echtra was based in 2016 by Max Schaefer, one of many co-founders of unique Torchlight developer Runic Video games and likewise a co-founder of Diablo studio Blizzard North. The studio’s preliminary focus was on Torchlight Frontiers, envisioned as an MMO, however in 2020, after “suggestions [from testers], discussing with our inner groups, and receiving steerage from our writer,” Echtra introduced a shift to a extra standard standalone sport design, and a brand new title, Torchlight 3.
Sadly, Torchlight 3 lacked the magic of the earlier video games within the sequence. Whereas the unique Torchlight was an impressive light-weight action-RPG in 2009 (I performed it a lot), Torchlight 3 was “mechanically sound,” we mentioned in our 60% assessment, however “bland in comparison with the opposite choices” out there in 2020. Its free-to-play roots had been additionally a bit too seen in locations, with programs “you’d look forward to finding in a predatory cellular sport.”
Lower than six months after Torchlight 3’s launch, Zynga acquired Echtra, a transfer CEO Frank Gibeau mentioned would assist the mobile-focused firm turn into extra of a pressure in PC and console gaming. Echtra’s first sport beneath the Zynga banner was meant to be a cross-platform RPG developed in partnership with Zynga’s NaturalMotion studio, however the venture by no means made it previous that preliminary announcement.
Notably, the tip of Echtra comes lower than three months after Zynga, a division of Take-Two Interactive, introduced the looming shutdown of NaturalMotion’s Star Wars: Hunters sport, a transfer that additionally noticed the cancellation of its deliberate launch on Steam.
Take-Two laid off roughly 5% of its workforce in April 2024, and in November bought off its indie-style Non-public Division publishing division and most of its related video games. Take-Two’s share worth additionally took a little bit of a tumble (however don’t be concerned, it bounced again fairly properly) when the corporate introduced the delay of Grand Theft Auto 6 from a deliberate launch in fall 2025 to Could 26, 2026—on consoles. A PC model nonetheless hasn’t been confirmed.
