Runic Games recently announced that it was working on Torchlight II, a follow up to its streamlined role playing game that got good reviews from critics and managed important sales for a game that lacked backing from a strong publisher. And it seems that the success of the first game from Runic Games was in a big part linked to their decision to focus on digitally selling it when it launched in October 2009.
Max Schaefer, who is the Chief Executive Officer of
Runic Games, talked to Gamasutra about the game and mentioned that the video game managed to sell more than 600,000 units in about nine months, with most of them coming through digital distribution outlets. He stated, “I would say it's almost four-to-one. I think that will even up as time goes on, just because there are different markets - I think boxes last a little longer in terms of their sales curves - but right now it's four-to-one, and that's conservative.”
Schaefer only mentioned that sales for the game also routinely pushed its numbers up, suggesting that developers and publisher can increase interest in their titles and widen the audience as long as they are prepared to drop the price significantly a while after the official launch date. The developer has also mentioned that the game losses about 10 percent of its sales every week in normal circumstances.
Torchlight II will have the same basic structure as the first game in the series, with random generated dungeons that players need to explore while using a wide array of weapons and spells. The game will offer four character classes to choose from and several other mechanics, like pets, will be returning from the first game. The main new addition of
Torchlight II will be peer to peer multiplayer play and the developers at Runic Games are also promising extended support for mods. The new game is set to arrive in 2011.
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