Four years after acquiring the studio, Zynga has confirmed with IGN that Torchlight 3 developer Echtra Games is being closed.
“Zynga has made the difficult decision to cease operations at its Echtra studio, ending development on future titles and reducing roles,” the company told the site. “This decision is part of a strategic realignment of the company’s resources and priorities. We will work closely with impacted employees so they are treated with the utmost respect and consideration as we navigate this difficult process.”
Echtra was founded in 2016 by Max Schaefer, one of the co-founders of original Torchlight developer Runic Games and also a co-founder of Diablo studio Blizzard North. The studio’s initial focus was on Torchlight Frontiers, envisioned as an MMO, but in 2020, after “feedback [from testers], discussing with our internal teams, and receiving guidance from our publisher,” Echtra announced a shift to a more conventional standalone game design, and a new title, Torchlight 3.
Unfortunately, Torchlight 3 lacked the magic of the previous games in the series. While the original Torchlight was an outstanding lightweight action-RPG in 2009 (I played it a lot), Torchlight 3 was “mechanically sound,” we said in our 60% review, but “bland compared to the other options” available in 2020. Its free-to-play roots were also a little too visible in places, with systems “you’d expect to find in a predatory mobile game.”
Less than six months after Torchlight 3’s release, Zynga acquired Echtra, a move CEO Frank Gibeau said would help the mobile-focused company become more of a force in PC and console gaming. Echtra’s first game under the Zynga banner was meant to be a cross-platform RPG developed in partnership with Zynga’s NaturalMotion studio, but the project never made it past that initial announcement.
Notably, the end of Echtra comes less than three months after Zynga, a division of Take-Two Interactive, announced the looming shutdown of NaturalMotion’s Star Wars: Hunters game, a move that also saw the cancellation of its planned release on Steam.
Take-Two laid off roughly 5% of its workforce in April 2024, and in November sold off its indie-style Private Division publishing division and most of its associated games. Take-Two’s share price also took a bit of a tumble (but don’t worry, it bounced back quite nicely) when the company announced the delay of Grand Theft Auto 6 from a planned release in fall 2025 to May 26, 2026—on consoles. A PC version still hasn’t been confirmed.