The Torchlight studio believes you’re best using another model. Runic’s dungeon-crawler is something you can play in small bites or ”geek out on all night.”
Max Schaefer says he doesn’t think anyone can do subscriptions anymore ”because pretty much everyone that does subscriptions has one for World of Warcraft.”
“You can’t really approach any MMO project without taking into account World of Warcraft,” said Schaefer. “It’s the elephant in the room of every MMO company.” That ‘elephant’ has over 12 million subscribers feeding Blizzard with constant revenue.
Schaefer was a founding member of Blizzard North, creator of Diablo and Diablo II. Runic Games’ Torchlight is ”the kind of game you can play for 20 minutes before you got to go out to dinner, but it’s also one that you can geek out on all night. It’s just a very accessible format that gives people a chance to enjoy a game rather than work at a game.”
Runic are developing Torchlight II which promises to add co-op. Has Blizzard sucked up all the worthwhile subscription fees opporunities in the MMO market? Check out the full Torchlight interview between Max Schaefer and Charge Shot.
