Zynga has formally shuttered Echtra Video games, the event studio behind Torchlight 3, which had been engaged on an unannounced cross-platform ARPG within the 4 years since its acquisition.
IGN can verify the San Francisco-based studio will probably be shut down by the tip of the month. Whereas we do not have a precise variety of people impacted, LinkedIn has 61 individuals who checklist their present job on the studio.
Zynga has offered the next assertion to IGN:
Zynga has made the troublesome determination to stop operations at its Echtra studio, ending improvement on future titles and lowering roles. This determination is a part of a strategic realignment of the corporate’s assets and priorities. We’ll work intently with impacted staff so they’re handled with the utmost respect and consideration as we navigate this troublesome course of.
Echtra Video games was based by Max Schaefer, one of many co-founders of Torchlight developer Runic Video games, and previously a co-founder of Blizzard North and co-creator of Diablo. Schaefer left Runic after his fellow co-founders equally departed the studio, and based Echtra beneath investor Good World to work on a Torchlight MMO. Over time, the sport’s imaginative and prescient shifted, ultimately turning into Torchlight Frontiers and later Torchlight 3. In 2021, Echtra Video games was acquired by Zynga, leaving Torchlight 3 within the palms of Good World and beginning work on “a brand new, but to be introduced RPG for cross-platform play” alongside CSR Racing and Star Wars: Hunters developer NaturalMotion.
Sadly, Echtra Video games’ RPG was by no means introduced or proven. It’s unclear exactly why Echtra was shuttered, although its closure comes simply three months after Zynga introduced it is going to shut down NaturalMotion-developed Star Wars: Hunters later this 12 months — a choice that was itself introduced simply 9 months after the sport launched. Notably, Zynga is a subsidiary of Grand Theft Auto writer Take-Two Interactive, which slowly dismantled after which offered off its Personal Division publishing label earlier this 12 months. The writer additionally laid off round 5% of its workforce simply over a 12 months in the past and canceled a number of tasks.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Yow will discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Obtained a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.
