Microsoft has announced that Torchlight, the old-school dungeon crawler that was released by Runic Games in 2009, will be coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace some time next month. The game will be released during the Xbox Live Arcade House party, during which multiple new releases will be promoted, and several other games will be available at discounted prices. This event kicks off on February 16th, and will last four weeks. The HD-remake of the Ubisoft classic Beyond Good and Evil will also be released during this event. Specific release dates have not been confirmed for either of these games.
Last year, Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer indicated that the game was being transitioned to the Playstation 3 as well as the Xbox 360. He has now confirmed that the game will only be released for the Xbox 360. Many of the mechanics have been overhauled to better suit the analog control scheme of the controller, and many animations have been altered to reflect this new control scheme. The overall UI has been improved, and changes have been implemented into the inventory to simplify item management. Schaefer also indicated that the control scheme has been adapted from the one that will be used in Torchlight II, the sequel that is currently in production for PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360.
I wonder if Runic Games had a hard time porting the game to the PS3. I cant see MS paying them money to keep this exclusive, especially since it has been out for so long on PC.
Usually these things aren’t down to simple payments in the case of smaller games like this. Microsoft probably offered them some sort of advantage if they kept it exclusively on the 360. With a less than huge game like this it might be something as simple as a marketing push from Microsoft’s side.
And as with what seems like all exclusivity deals these days, it’s likely only a timed exclusive.