Torchlight II - The Charge Bar, launching "shortly after Diablo 3"?

The weekly update on Torchlight II discusses the "charge bar":

This Friday we are talking a little bit about a neat new mechanic in Torchlight II: the charge bar! As you damage enemies, the charge bar will fill up, and you can use this to give your character an advantage when in the thick of combat. Time spent not fighting will cause the charge bar to empty, so you will need to keep an eye on things to keep your edge. Each class uses the charge bar in their own way, so take a look!

…and Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer tells PAX "ideally" they will launch shortly after Diablo 3:

Schaefer said the launch date will "ideally" be shortly after the one occupied by Diablo — and optimistically it'll be a month later. He noted that Runic isn't going to rush to beat Blizzard, however. With the two products selling alongside one another, he feels it's best to polish the game as much as possible. He doesn't want to be the "cheap" alternative, simply the less expensive one at a $20 price. He also noted the game would have an offline mode, modding, LAN support, and that its pacing would separate it from the competition.

More information.

I just don't understand these guys. Polished or not, they're foolish to go head to head with the marketing of Diablo 3. It's almost as if they dared themselves to take on their former employer to see who would come out on top.

What? It can go both ways. By being the cheap alternative, they stand to capitalize on the D3 marketing. It's not a zero-sum market. People will buy games they want to play, and that also includes buying two games.

I don't think it really matters at this point if they deliver before or after D3, if they were in a rush to beat D3 they should have dropped the game in December. At this point just make sure Torchlight is as polished as it can be.

They are also offering a product to a group that D3 doesn't want, mainly off line, LAN and single player. As well the $20 price tag sure don't hurt either.

confident little buggers

Imagine, a market where both games can do well…shocking.

When Diablo 2 hit there were a ton of clones that followed shorty after that a lot of people bought good or bad, maybe the same deal this time around also.

Originally Posted by Warmark
When Diablo 2 hit there were a ton of clones that followed shorty after that a lot of people bought good or bad, maybe the same deal this time around also.

There were also a lot of good games that got overlooked because of the hype over Diablo 2. Icewind Dale 2 comes to mind.

Personally, I'm not in the habit of buying up a lot of games these days, especially at the same time. It's one or the other. I can't imagine I'm the only one.

The question isn't whether both games have the ability to do well, the question is whether releasing a game around the same time as your much bigger budget and massively hyped competitor is a good idea. There's a reason why movie studios will delay the release of a movie if it's too close to a very similar, bigger budget movie. The hype surrounding your initial release is very important and you don't want anything that blunts that.

Well, that's the final nail in the coffin for Torchlight 2. They would have made really good sales by action RPG'ers waiting for Diablo 3, but releasing right after their biggest rival which has thousands of times as much money for advertising and name recognition? They're doomed.

Originally Posted by regomar
Well, that's the final nail in the coffin for Torchlight 2. They would have made really good sales by action RPG'ers waiting for Diablo 3, but releasing right after their biggest rival which has thousands of times as much money for advertising and name recognition? They're doomed.

I have to agree. Their entire fan base is going to be off playing Diablo 3. The release will be completely lost in the shuffle.

Could be but better rightly made then rushed out.

I guess the developers weighed the pros and cons of going up against Diablo 3. I probably would have voted to wait for a few more months and release it in August or September when it isn't going directly head to head with D3 - the people that are going to buy D3 would have had 3 months to play it by then. Many would be ready to move on to something new by that time.

Eh, the "date" has slipped before a number of times——wouldn't be surprised to see it slip a bit more before finally landing.

I'm one of some, lots in terms of useful dollar amounts, that won't be bothering with Diablo III given the direction they've taken it, and that likely the "online" side of things will be better handled by Path of Exile with their more ethical transaction aspirations.

From what i hear fron the FANS ,Diablo 3 is lacking soul so many are going for Torchlight 2 for the fix. This is my absolute favorite genre i have Diablo 3 pre-ordered and will get Torchlight 2 the day of release as well as Gim Dawn and Realms Of Ancient War.Now the need to announce a modern version of Gauntlet because Wizard needs food badly. The guys at Runic dont seem to be worried so why should the fans, besides for 20 bucks you cant really go wrong when Blizzard has the nerve to ask 100 dollars for the CE. I say Runic should work on the game for another 6 months and really make a kick ass Hak-N-Slash then charge 35-40. Many fans of the genre will buy both its that simple.

Well, I'm a huge Diablo and Torchlight fan, and I'm definitely buying the D3 CE and 2 copies of TL2 for myself.
I think D3 and TL2, while very much in the same subgenre, are 2 fundamentally different games with enough differentiation to cover separate segments of the genre demographic.
D3:
- RMAH
- Online-only, secure, structured environment
- More restrictive, simplified and balanced game mechanics
- Good longevity with continued support and expansion releases by Blizzard
- 60$

TL2:
- One-time 20$ payment with no additional expenses or microtransactions
- Highly moddable
- Offline and LAN components
- Volatile/flexible game mechanics and unsafe online environment
- Lots of potential longevity through modding, and if successful enough, 1 expansion release

And these are just the main differences between those 2 games. I didn't even mention all the other less significant ones. So yes, I expect many people to get TL2 over time, especially modders, traditional D2 fans and casual players looking for something new after playing through D3 a couple of times.

Torchlight already has a large following. One only needs to take a peek on the forums to see this. And because they are considered an "indie" title, they don't need to sell nearly as much volume for it to be successful. On the flip side, us die-hard diablo fans know that runic games were a good chunk of the original Blizzard North team that did diablo 1 and 2, I know I'll be getting both. It would be cool to see a poll on this

The idea of charging weapons has be done in other games but right now i can only remember Sacred 2 ( it was a spell ).

TL2 is in my list to buy anyway because 1st one was okayish , there are no good HnS games around and it is SP .

Once I get Diablo 3, everything else just gets put on my "bargain bin watch list" for future reference only…

There's a 17min Torchligh 2 gameplay vid at Gamespot from PAX East with Max Schaefer narration once again. Shows the charge bar, first town and says the first act is larger than Torchlight.