Ex-Titan Quest developers who survived the collapse of Iron Lore went on to form Crate Entertainment, and they bought the rights to console RPG Black Legion.
It wasn't picked up by a publisher though, but Crate developers weren't going to give up. Instead they moved on to begin work on a PC action-RPG with "thematically darker" themes.
This is a return to their Diablo and Titan Quest roots if you will. "This unknown path we’ve chosen to take won’t be easy, but I think if we come out the other side alive and not too badly mangled, it will be very rewarding," said co-founder Arthur Bruno to Gamasutra.
"It’s an opportunity to fulfill a labor of love working on the type of game we’re most passionate about with an unprecedented level of creative freedom. Hopefully we won’t fuck it up."
Did you enjoy Iron Lore's Titan Quest? It was marred by accusations of poor development work which caused numerous technical issues, but this was later revealed to be hidden security features designed to catch out illegal copies. Alas the bad publicity took root.
As for why Crate Entertainment's bid to get Black Legion signed failed... blame the economy. "We were looking for funding on a risky venture at a time when the U.S. was in financial crisis and the world economy was destabilized," said Bruno.
"Some of our best prospects in terms of publishers were in the process of massive layoffs and project cancellations." So could a console loss be a PC gain? Time will tell...
