Torchlight - 500k Sales

VoodooExtreme points out Torchlight has sold half a million copies. Not bad for a small project, although it's hard to judge the average selling price with a whole bunch of Steam sales and the like.
More information.

Cheers!

I bought it on first day it came out. Thought i am going to support small developer , and keep them afloat. Turns out I didnt need to

Anyway. Its an awesome little time waster. I still play it often.

And it could have been even better if it was harder, and had multiplayer.
But than it would be just perfection.

Runic cashed in their chips.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/17/pe…ght-developer/

Originally Posted by Gorath
Runic cashed in their chips.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/17/pe…ght-developer/

This is very bad decision. And the price was so low as well. Calculating the sales Torchlight made 3-5 million from sales alone, up to now.

And the MMO has at least 5 times the potential.

Is it so hard to stay independent these days ?

Pretty sad that Hellgate was such a failure, and something so trivial as Torchlight is the way to go for success.

Hellgate had a horrible launch, true, but it's a zillion times better than Torchlight - imo.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Pretty sad that Hellgate was such a failure, and something so trivial as Torchlight is the way to go for success.

Hellgate had a horrible launch, true, but it's a zillion times better than Torchlight - imo.

I completely agree

In fact. I just started playing Hellgate again. And figured one thing :

Let just imagine HGL was done in setting that allowed for more imagination for creating random maps - well fantasy setting comes to mind. Cause i think main problem of HGL was how darb and repetitive it looked ….

Originally Posted by Twotricks
I completely agree

In fact. I just started playing Hellgate again. And figured one thing :

Let just imagine HGL was done in setting that allowed for more imagination for creating random maps - well fantasy setting comes to mind. Cause i think main problem of HGL was how darb and repetitive it looked ….

Yeah, the setting wasn't too inspiring.

But I think it could have worked, if they hadn't ignored the story almost completely - and if they'd worked on better presentation. Full speech and somewhat plausible NPCs would have worked wonders.

Naturally, the disastrous launch made it all but impossible to recover, but the game at the core is truly brilliant for what it is.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Yeah, the setting wasn't too inspiring.

But I think it could have worked, if they hadn't ignored the story almost completely - and if they'd worked on better presentation. Full speech and somewhat plausible NPCs would have worked wonders.

Naturally, the disastrous launch made it all but impossible to recover, but the game at the core is truly brilliant for what it is.

Sorry I had not time to finish my post because my boss walked in :O

Anyway…

Another problem with the game was that they had this great setting (although visually it didnt work quite well) Potential for great story. But instead it seems they fired all the writers and just went with some kind of insider humor quest. Result was that all the game felt out of place and really incoherent.

But here is what i think…

Let say somebody buys right to Hellgate engine. Now they remake the game to a very simple but engaging fantasy setting - not unlike Diablo.

This time make good story and quests. And really work on visual side of random world.

Make multiplayer free of charge , not like subscription HGL tried before (to its doom)

Finally make the game unforgiving hard like Demon Souls.


This my friend would be epic , genre changing game.

Well, at least it looks like Torchlight will finally get its multiplayer

But by the time this happens, Diablo 3 should be out by then so it won't matter.

Bit confused by this; as the developer promised free MMO for all ?early? purchasers. I wonder if perfect world acquisition has changed this small detail…

Originally Posted by Twotricks
This is very bad decision. And the price was so low as well. Calculating the sales Torchlight made 3-5 million from sales alone, up to now.

And the MMO has at least 5 times the potential.

Is it so hard to stay independent these days ?

How many of you havepurchased eschalon 2? It is VERY hard to stay afloat as an independent these days…you don't have the backing/advertisning of the big companies and if your game doesn't sell you could be out alot of money…

How big was the studio? I was under the impression the entire studio was pretty much just a skeleton crew. Selling out for that price, therefore, may not have been such a bad idea for them as individuals. Figure the top couple of guys got $1M+ and the rest of the crew got some nice six-figure severance payouts, and in this day and age we can call that as much of a success as anything else out there. Why wait until you've put all your heart and a huge chunk of your career into a studio just to have it milked and ridden to death by the corp that eventually gets more and more involved with your daily decisions, while understanding your studio less and less. Take the money and start something newer and better and keep it running lean. Or, just retire and live the rest of your life like a Corona commercial (the one with the blonde.)

Doesn't Torchlight look very much like a comic ? Like wow does ? Could this be a hint to why the sales are so good ?

I think the gameplay has more to do with it. Torchlight is clear about what it is and what it wants to do, and does it very well.

Originally Posted by Michael Dean
How big was the studio? I was under the impression the entire studio was pretty much just a skeleton crew. Selling out for that price, therefore, may not have been such a bad idea for them as individuals. Figure the top couple of guys got $1M+ and the rest of the crew got some nice six-figure severance payouts, and in this day and age we can call that as much of a success as anything else out there. Why wait until you've put all your heart and a huge chunk of your career into a studio just to have it milked and ridden to death by the corp that eventually gets more and more involved with your daily decisions, while understanding your studio less and less. Take the money and start something newer and better and keep it running lean. Or, just retire and live the rest of your life like a Corona commercial (the one with the blonde.)

ok…

The answer is no.

I work in what is called "Startup" company. These high tech companies work with small teams (we started 6 people) and they work until they are purchased by big company. It is not unusual to be purchased for 20 million , or even much much more. We were offered 11 million , but refused. (and by we i mean my bosses..heh)

Torchlight and Runic is much bigger "thing" than the app we are developing. So I think that 8 million is really not that much money for buyout.

Since I saw HG:L mentioned, I'll just remind people of this:

http://www.hellgateaus.net/

I must admit that I just couldn't stand it just sitting and working there for the "big one" , essentially.

Maybe I'm too much of an idealist.

Still kind of a strange move. I mean, clearly the existing relationship they had going with PW had borne some rather nice fruit? Far better than the last publisher situation most of the Runic folk had before they re-emerged as Runic at least. I can't see the metaphorical gun to their heads, on either party's side, as to why they'd elect to move things forward in this way versus the original plan…

Still, if PW/Runic folk can steer any number of things in a better/lively direction they might as well make a go of it.

Originally Posted by getter77
Still kind of a strange move. I mean, clearly the existing relationship they had going with PW had borne some rather nice fruit? Far better than the last publisher situation most of the Runic folk had before they re-emerged as Runic at least. I can't see the metaphorical gun to their heads, on either party's side, as to why they'd elect to move things forward in this way versus the original plan…

Still, if PW/Runic folk can steer any number of things in a better/lively direction they might as well make a go of it.

Press release claims PW now owns majority of Runic games stock.

I think it was pretty much one side move by PW. And Runic had not much of a choice.

Is this typical nowadays that some companies tend to take over others ?

Is taking over actually a kind of business principle ? As soon as it generates profits, take it over" ?

I mean - personall, I would prefer developing companies to be independent as long as possible - and the publishing and the markting should be done by others. Clearly divided tasks between two partners.

But no, companies want to be everything at once. Not wanting developers to stay independent.

I wonder, why ? Because, companies which are small and efficient can generate as much profits - measured against their size - than big behemoths.

It's like … We once had small food shops here. We called them "Aunt emma Shops". They're all gone now.
Now, they are replaced by huge food-selling companies, so-called "discounters", like Aldi and Lidl, and "sell-everything-food-and-non-food" companies like Walmar(k)t.
For the customer, this has both pros and cons :

pro: lower prices
con: lower service, monoculture

The bigger they become, the more they want to squeeze out any possible competors. It's like … some sort of entity becoming insane, and wanting to control EVERYTHING.
(I'm speaking of so-called "meta-cultures" and "meta-beings" here, which can be companies which act like a bee hive or so.)