Runic games’ sequel to their surprise hit of a dungeon crawler was set to launch by the years end. As was Blizzards sequel the game Torchlight was likened to. Now after Blizzard delayed Diablo III into next year, leaving Runic in a possition to claim an early advantage over fans of the genre, instead they have opted to follow suite and postpone the release of Torchlight 2 into next year. President of the company, Travis Baldree, had this to say on the matter over on the Torchlight 2 developer blog;

So… where is Torchlight 2? Didn’t you guys say that you were planning to try to release this year?”

Well, yeah. We did – and we made a good run at that. We’ve come to the realization, however, that getting a game of this scope up to the quality and polish level we want to achieve is going to take a little longer; especially since we want to run a small beta before release to ensure that our launch is smooth.
Besides, you’re all playing Skyrim right now anyway, aren’t you? Or Battlefield 3? Or Uncharted 3? Or Saints Row 3? Or Arkham City? Or Skyward Sword? Or Minecraft? Or Modern Warfare 3? Or Dark Souls? Or Assassin’s Creed Revelations?

Those are awesome games. When Torchlight 2 goes live, we want it to be awesome too – all the way through.

 

We cut the a paragraph or two from the blog update which can be read in full here. Maybe releasing Torchlight 2 next year is the better option, Travis made a good point, we are all pretty swamped in quality releases right now so releasing another closer to christmas may have proved a little too much for some. If Blizzard decide to confirm a Q1 2012 release for Diablo, Torchlight may come under direct competition from a game raveling in online features and a much more highely anticpated release to boot. We’ll have to see how it all plays out when Torchlight actually launches.