Sure thing, here we go:
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So, here’s a wild one — the folks behind Torchlight 3, Echtra Games? Yeah, they’re basically shutting doors. Zynga, that big-name company, decided to pull the plug. I read it in this piece from, where was it… oh yeah, IGN. It’s all about some “strategic realignment.” Whatever that means, right?
Anyway, Echtra Games, this place was cooked up by Max Schaefer. You know, the dude who had a hand in the original Torchlight? Kinda cool. He left Runic Games — that’s the first studio — back in 2016 and got busy with Echtra. Perfect World was mixed up in there somewhere too and even launched Torchlight 3 in 2020.
Fast forward to 2021 and boom, Zynga swoops in and buys Echtra. The price tag? Who knows. I mean, they’ve still got Torchlight 3 under Perfect World’s wing. Oh, and Echtra had their hands on some secret RPG thing, plus they chipped in on CSR Racing and that Star Wars: Hunters game everyone was talking about.
This Zynga rep said something like, closing Echtra was a tough call — one of those “aligning resources” kinda deals. I guess folks there will be going through some job shake-ups, but they’re promising to handle it with lots of care. Seems like a real bummer for the crew over there.
Anyway, that’s the scoop. Or, well, at least how it all shook out from what I caught.
