A Torchlight mobile game is in the works from Chinese publisher Perfect World, but you might be surprised to learn that this isn't the first time Torchlight has launched on iOS or Android.
Torchlight 3 is the newest core release in the action RPG franchise. It gives gamers a pretty standard action RPG experience, but this wasn't how it originally planned to launch; Echtra Games was trying to make it into a free-to-play, live service game. Those plans were eventually canceled in favor of a more traditional experience.
Since then, Torchlight 3 has put out some new content and balance patches every now and again as you would expect from any other ARPG. We haven't heard much about any new games just yet — until today. Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad has reported that a new Torchlight mobile game is on the way.
This Isn't the First Torchlight Mobile Game
Perfect World's upcoming Torchlight mobile game might not be what you'd expect — a machine translation of the subtitle (seen in our header image) says that it's a "light operation strategy casual RPG mobile game." This echoes Daniel Ahmad's assessment that it is going to be a "casual strategy RPG."
The terminology is important here: a "casual strategy RPG" might not provide the same kind of gameplay as an action RPG, so this might not be a similar situation to the somewhat chilled response to the reveal of Diablo Immortal. Shifting the game to a different genre could ease any concerns that players are getting a mobile game instead of a new core release in the franchise.
Believe it or not, this isn't the first time that Torchlight has tried to come to mobile. Torchlight Mobile was announced back in June of 2015 and featured many fan-favorite mechanics alongside the introduction of new classes like the Kitsune. This mobile game was later officially dubbed Torchlight: The Legend Continues and it got a soft launch on Android and iOS. Sadly, it didn't seem to take off and this mobile version of Torchlight has since vanished into the aether.
Unfortunately, we don't know much about what this Torchlight mobile game will look like; the only information we have comes from the splash image shown at the announcement during Perfect World's conference today. Between this and a new Persona mobile game, it looks like Perfect World has some pretty ambitious plans for the future.
Do you think this new Torchlight mobile game can live up to the legacy of its predecessors? What's your favorite mobile spin-off to date? Let us know in the comments below!
