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Runic Games' long-sought goal to port Torchlight to consoles will come to fruition when the game is released on Xbox Live Arcade as part of Microsoft's "House Party" promotion, beginning in mid-February. Depending on its success on the platform, Runic could look to quickly port the sequel to consoles, too, following its launch on PC this spring.

"That will hopefully get to the consoles, as well," Runic CEO Max Schaefer told MTV Multiplayer. "Depending on how [Torchlight on XBLA] does ... we're excited to get Torchlight 2 onto consoles. Hopefully sooner than how long [Torchlight on XBLA] took. We've gone through the exercise, we know what it takes."

Additionally, Schaefer priced Torchlight on XBLA at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), though a a representative for the studio later said that that price was not official. "It will be set by Microsoft, not Runic Games," said the representative, "and we cannot confirm it."

With the announcement that Torchlight will hit Xbox Live Arcade within two months, we're sure many players are curious as to what changes have been made during the transition from Mac and PC. Thankfully, the wait is over, as Runic has already detailed many of the changes on its website. First, the developer notes that the user interface has seen more than just a few tweeks: It's been redesigned from the ground up.

Furthermore, the inventory grid has been abandoned in favor of a hard item limit. Players will be able to carry 50 items at a time, regardless of their size. Certain items, like potions and scrolls, can still be stacked in a single slot. Speaking of potions, the game will automatically pick the best potion to use in a given situation, so there's no need to worry about using a strong potion when you only need a little bit of health or mana. Eight skills can be mapped at once, with Runic noting that many of its staffers "actually find it easier to use a variety of skills on the console vs. PC."

Finally, player control is done directly and there are "no virtual cursors ever." With no specific target control, melee combat has been tweaked, while ranged combat now uses an auto targeting system. Meanwhile, the distance of "lobbed skills" can be "finessed" using the analog triggers. Runic states that other console dungeon crawlers like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath offer a "general idea" of what to expect.

In other words, expect to start playing the game and discover that several hours have past the next time you look at the clock.

#xbla Torchlight, one of 2009's surprise hits on the PC, is hoping to be one of 2011's surprise hits on the Xbox 360. Here's how it's shaping up. More »

Runic Games' first release, Torchlight, came out on PC a year ago today, and the company is celebrating the anniversary with a sale. Starting today, and ending October 29 at 8AM PT, the PC version of Torchlight will be offered for half off on the official game site. That's $10 for all the dungeon crawling you can stand -- or mod, using the game's included editing tools.

Unfortunately, the Mac version remains $20, as Runic doesn't sell that version directly. The Mac version is only offered via Steam, and Runic informs Joystiq that Steam isn't participating in this particular sale. But don't lose heart, would-be Mac players, as Runic assures that a cross-platform sale will be held later this year (in case you missed the discounted Mac version the first time around). And don't forget: Torchlight will hopefully be out on consoles, too, before the year is out.

Runic Games had dreams of putting Torchlight on Xbox Live Arcade, then it put "serious effort" into a console version and now the studio is hoping to have the game out by this holiday for PSN and XBLA. Runic CEO Max Schaefer told Joystiq at Gamescom today, "We're trying, we're talking [to Sony and Microsoft] and we hope to get that done quickly." Although there's no release window, he told us it'll "hopefully" be available "by the holidays."

Schaefer also told us the game has now sold over 750,000 units and is en route to a million. The RPG reached the half-million milestone back in May after launching in October, following a tiny development time of 10 months. If the sales figure seems a bit low, the executive mentioned that piracy has been an issue, but they have no servers to track how many illegal copies have been made.

As for Torchlight 2 for consoles, Schaefer told us Runic will "try" to get the multiplayer sequel to consoles sometime after the PC and Mac release.

#pc PC role-playing-game Torchlight is back. There is a reason why. This trailer tells you that reason. Would you like to know? Then watch this! More »

#pc Torchlight, the surprise Diablo-esque hit of last fall, is getting a sequel this coming spring, according to developer Runic Games. More »

Not to be outdone by Steam and its dangerously generous sale this week (you do own Torchlight by now, right?), Impluse is running its own 4th of July sale, with 68 different downloadable PC games given prices set to move, some even better than Steam. If you want some quality RTS action, the Company of Heroes pack is a great deal at $29.99, Command and Conquer 4 is $24.99 and the Sins of a Solar Empire expansions are $5 off.

Not quite as much variety as the Steam sale, but what's there is well-priced. PC gamers, you have no excuse to bother with any of the "going outside" or fireworks this July 4th weekend -- not when there are all these great cheap games to play!

Finally, some news on the MMO offshoot of Runic Games' exceptional (and popular) dungeon-crawler, Torchlight. Speaking with PC Gamer UK for its upcoming cover story on the game, Runic boss Travis Baldree confirmed that this free-to-play, massively-multiplayer apple won't fall far from its single-player tree.

Saying that the game's creators are out to make "an MMO that plays as close to single player as we can get it," Baldree expounded by adding, "It will have the same focus on relatively fast action: carving your way through hordes of monsters with a large number of hugely devastating skills." Skills that "make [players] useful in a party and make them work together" when not going it solo.

Baldree also flat-out stated that he "will never, ever buy a microtransaction item" -- the game's revenue system, by the way -- indicating that Runic has something unique up its sleeve when adding, "We don't want our monetisation stuff to offer ways to skip the game because the game is boring." We take it that means no paying to unlock everything in the game.

#pc It's been humming along under the radar for months now, but Runic Games is about to take the wraps off its next game: a massively-multiplayer title based on 2009's surprise hit Torchlight. More »

Gamasutra reports that in the weeks preceding its launch on the shiny new Steam for Mac client, Runic Games' top-down RPG Torchlight hit a pretty substantial milestone. Since its launch last October the game, which typically sells for $20, has been purchased over 500,000 times.

We imagine Perfect World, the game's publishing partner that recently purchased a majority stake in Runic, is pleased as punch about reaching the sales milestone. You should be, too -- in honor of hitting the half-million mark, and in celebration of the game's launch on Mac, you can grab Torchlight on Steam for $10 for a limited time.

Gamasutra reports that in the weeks preceding its launch on the shiny new Steam for Mac client, Runic Games' top-down RPG Torchlight hit a pretty substantial milestone. Since its launch last October the game, which typically sells for $20, has been purchased over 500,000 times.

We imagine Perfect World, the game's publishing partner that recently purchased a majority stake in Runic, is pleased as punch about reaching the sales milestone. You should be, too -- in honor of hitting the half-million mark, and in celebration of the game's launch on Mac, you can grab Torchlight on Steam for $10 for a limited time.

#pc We'd always thought Torchlight, the game that many have generously labelled as simply being inspired by Diablo, had been a cult hit for developers Runic. Thing is, 500,000 copies sold isn't a cult hit. It's a hit. More »

Perfect World, a China-based developer and publisher of several MMOs, revealed today it has acquired "a majority stake" in Runic Games for approximately $8.4 million. Runic is the studio that spawned from the ashes of Hellgate: London's Flagship Studios and is best-known for Torchlight, its single-player Diablo-inspired action-RPG. Previously, in April 2009, Runic had entered an agreement that made Perfect World the exclusive worldwide publisher of Torchlight.

Considering Perfect World is primarily an MMO publisher, it's fairly obvious the company gobbled up the majority stake in Runic in anticipation of the developer's Torchlight MMO, which is reportedly about two years away. With this acquisition, Perfect World has stated that it seeks to "create global titles" -- so more Hot Dance Party MMOs then?

#steam Valve Software has flipped the switch. You can now officially download Steam for Mac OS X. Do so now and Valve will throw in a copy of the original Portal for free. More »

With PC games continuously losing retail shelf space and Mac games having little shelf space to begin with, Steam presents the first significant distribution platform, digital or otherwise, the Mac gaming platform has seen in years (ever?). It remains to be seen if Steam for Mac and Steamworks - the platform's suite of tools covering everything from copy protection, anti-cheat support, and key-based authentication to Steam community, Steam Cloud, and microtransactions - will be enough to encourage publishers to incur the added expense of porting games to the Mac OS X platform but tomorrow's launch offerings are certainly promising.

Valve says that, in addition to the games launching tomorrow, on "subsequent Wednesdays, additional collections of Mac titles will become available, each designed to highlight specific functionalities of Steam on the Mac." The first collection will highlight "Steam Play," meaning games that work on all "Steam supported platforms," currently Windows and Mac OS. Valve identified its own Portal and the Diablo-esque Torchlight as launch titles, the only two to be officially announced.

The Steam for Mac beta client reveals over three dozen "Mac games," all currently available via Steam on Windows. Notable entries include LucasArts classics like The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Loom, some of Telltale's episodic offerings, including the most recent installment of Sam & Max and the entire first season of Tales of Monkey Island, and several PopCap titles, like Peggle Deluxe, Peggle Nights, and Bejeweled 2. Also listed and currently playable (unlike every other listing in the Mac beta, short of Portal) is Team Fortress 2, though it's curiously not mentioned in Valve's press release which heralds Portal as "the first of Valve's Source engine based games available on the Mac."

Notably still missing from this list are Valve's Half-Life and Left 4 Dead series, PopCap's already-Mac-compatible Plants vs. Zombies, and plenty of other Mac-compatible titles currently on Steam. This forum thread has a nice list of potential Steam Mac games, and we've asked Valve to comment on how many of the currently listed games will be available tomorrow. Check out of a screenshot of the Mac store, as it looks today in its beta state, after the break.

#mac Valve's dominant games-downloading service Steam comes to Macs tomorrow, bringing with it Diablo-style indie hit Torchlight and Valve's very own first-person puzzle hit Portal. More »

Once again, downloadable gaming retailer Direct2Drive has chosen to reduce the price of a whole gaggle of its offerings. Encheapened titles as part of the "Spring Sale" include interstellar MMO Star Trek Online ($29.95), Nazi-vanquishing sim The Saboteur ($14.95), mine-raiding RPG Torchlight ($9.95), world-dominating strategy title Civilization 4: Complete Edition ($9.95) and every X-Com game ever made, except for, you know, the new one ($4.95). To see the complete list of discounted games, click past the jump.

Now look, Direct2Drive. You really, really need to chill out with all of these sales. If you keep discounting the prices of your games with such regularity, then people are going to start thinking that these are your normal going rates for these titles. During the off-times when you're not holding a sale, they're going to start thinking that you're just having a temporary ... expensiveization. That can't possibly be good for business.

Joystiq editors generally agree, Torchlight is one delightful little game. Anyone who enjoys a good dungeon-crawling action RPG should really give it a try, especially those looking for something to pass the time between now and Diablo 3. While it was already reasonably priced at $20, Steam has slashed the price to a ridiculously low $5 until Monday. At that price it's a definite, solid buy. Seriously, there's no need for deliberation here. Just go buy it.

#gdc Zynga's Bill Mooney obtained the 2010 Game Developer's Choice Award for Farmville in the Best Social/Online Game category. To celebrate, he allowed Kotaku to brainstorm with him about world domination, Farmville: The Movie and ... I got Pokemon tips. More »

#gdc Two of the creators of PC darling Torchlight won the Best Debut Game trophy at the 2010 Game Developer's Choice Awards. Backstage after winning, they explained how to succeed on PC, considered Torchlight 2, and ... I got Pokemon tips. More »

#pc Torchlight is a game we like. A lot. So we also like the news that it's developers are looking at bringing the game to consoles. More »

Speaking to The Rumble Pack, Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer declared that his company is actively pursuing a console port of its PC action RPG, Torchlight. "We're going to put some serious effort into it -- pretty quick -- getting Torchlight onto consoles," said Schaefer. "There's a lot of really cool things about the console world, too, that would work well with our game," he added, "So, we are definitely going to be going in that direction." He offered no specifics on the project, saying only that the company is "talking to a million people" and that it's "something we definitely want to do.

We were quite taken with Torchlight when it released on PC last year -- the game landed more than a few of our staff's best of 2009 lists -- so here's hoping we'll get some more details soon.

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Speaking to 1UP, Runic Games' Max Schaefer intimated that he'd like to see the company's upcoming RPG Torchlight make an appearance on Xbox Live Arcade. Unfortunately, Schaefer admitted that Runic is a small developer and is focused on bringing out the Torchlight MMO next, so an XBLA version may not be in the cards. He noted his belief that an XBLA version "would really do great," however. Given the enjoyable time we spent with the PC version at PAX, we're inclined to agree. A dungeon crawler in the same vein as Diablo, Torchlight would be a perfect fit for consoles, especially with the addition of multiplayer. Here's hoping Runic finds a way to make it happen.