Torchlight 3 Exits Its Short Early Access Period Next Month
Earlier this year, Echtra Games and Perfect World Entertainment announced that they were revamping Torchlight Frontiers – which had already been in development for a couple of years – and turning it into Torchlight 3. What followed was a series of beta tests and the eventual early access launch of Torchlight 3 in June. Now, just a few months later, it seems Echtra and Perfect World are ready to launch Torchlight 3.
The two companies announced today that Torchlight 3 will be launching on October 13th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. They even gave us a precise launch time for the game, announcing that it'll go live at 7 AM PDT/11 AM EDT. A Nintendo Switch version of Torchlight 3 will follow this launch at some point in the future, but we don't have a precise release date for that one yet.
Like many early access games, Torchlight 3 will see a price jump when it enters full release next month. Currently on offer at $29.99, we'll see the price go up to $39.99 on October 13th. In a Steam news post, Echtra Games said that everyone who purchased the early access version will automatically be upgraded to the full version for free (as you'd expect), and that all buyers will get a Fairy pet regardless of platform.
The full release promises 4-player online co-op and an offline single-player game, four playable classes, a collection of five subclass-granting Relics, and a three act campaign that takes place 100 years after the end of Torchlight 2. Echtra says that players will even get to build their own forts, with an end-game experience called "Fazeer Shah's Dun-Djinn" and a contract-based progression system waiting for them when they finish the campaign.
It'll be interesting to see how Torchlight 3 is received by players and critics alike when it launches on October 13th, because the early access reaction thus far has been mixed. Whether or not Torchlight 3 will be in a state to turn those feelings around in just a couple of weeks remains to be seen, but Torchlight 3 definitely has a lot to live up to given how highly action RPG fans seem to regard the first two Torchlight games.