Torchlight II Interview

The folks at Gamocracy chatted up Runic Games' Max Schaefer about their forthcoming Torchlight sequel during last month's GamesCom, and the results of that conversation are now online. A snip:
When you released Torchlight 1, you announced another Torchlight game that would have multiplayer in it coming in 2011. We called it (Torchlight MMO) on Gamocracy . But a few weeks ago, you announced Torchlight 2, which seems to be yet another game. So, what's Torchlight 2 compared with the game that was initially announced?

Yes, it was our intent to roll right into making a full MMO right after Torchlight, but the demand for a simple co-op multi-player Torchlight was unanimous. There are great things you can do in MMOs, and we still look forward to making an MMO of Torchlight, but we have an opportunity to do a simple co-op game much more quickly. With a peer-to-peer co-op model, you don't have to charge subscriptions or items sales, and you get to do things like releasing the modding tools again, so it's something that we think the fans will appreciate and enjoy. In the meantime, we'll get valuable experience with what works and what doesn't in multi-player Torchlight, and that will make for a much better MMO.

Do you have a release date for the next Torchlight game? And the next?

We're targeting April/May of 2011 for Torchlight 2, and then a couple years roughly for the MMO after that.
Thanks, LadyVox.