Torchlight II was supposed to come out this past summer, while the original's Xbox Live Arcade port was finished. Then, Torchlight II was supposed to be out before the end of the year. Now, Torchlight 2 won’t be released until next year.

“We've come to the realization,” said Runic Games president Travis Baldree on the game’s official website today, “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.”

Part of the reason for the delay, Baldree revealed, was the studio’s desire to have a beta period.

After making a series of promises about a date, however, Baldree isn’t making any grand proclamations today, instead dancing around the idea of a “relatively small” period of waiting time.

“Right now our job is to ensure that the quality level is consistent all the way to the end,” he said.

Torchlight II was supposed to come out this past summer, while the original's Xbox Live Arcade port was finished. Then, Torchlight II was supposed to be out before the end of the year. Now, Torchlight 2 won’t be released until next year.

“We've come to the realization,” said Runic Games president Travis Baldree on the game’s official website today, “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.”

Part of the reason for the delay, Baldree revealed, was the studio’s desire to have a beta period.

After making a series of promises about a date, however, Baldree isn’t making any grand proclamations today, instead dancing around the idea of a “relatively small” period of waiting time.

“Right now our job is to ensure that the quality level is consistent all the way to the end,” he said.

I knew it :(

:( this makes me sad, I was hoping this would tide me over for Diablo 3

Better than coming out broken.

I really hope this doesn't get lost in the Diablo III shuffle.

Torchlight 2 was a really fun game. :(

I don't mean this to sound as a slight to torchlight 2, because I really did like the first one, but I don't think too many people will be devastated by this news. There's so much stuff to play right now and I'd really rather play the polished product that they want to be put out rather than a rushed one that could be available by the end of the year.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooo.

I was hoping it would come out before Diablo 3. Then again, who knows when that game will release either.

And I guess better late than broken.

I hope its release date doesn't coincide with Diablo 3.

diablo 3 is gonna fuck them up

so are we now going to play diablo 3 before torchlight 2? the earth is definitely doomed.

Aww ):

His job should be to release it before Diablo 3 if he want's to survive...

Aww, one of the few games I'm looking forward to.

This is really bad news for those devs. Diablo 3 is coming early next year despite what many think. Early being february or march.

Torchlight 2, have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Awww man!

I guess this means I have plenty of time to go after those Torchlight 1 achievements. They might be in trouble if Diablo 3 beats it to market though.

I really wanna see this game do well, I loved the first one.

Eh. Loved Torchlight and really looking forward to Torchlight II, but there are plenty of good games out right now that are going to keep me busy for quite awhile.

Good for them. More time = more polish. At 19.99 this game is going to seriously give diablo3 a run for its money.

Damn :/

I am completely fine with that. There are so many big games out now that and so little left of the year that it would be utter madness to release it now. Plus, if they can use the time to polish the f*** out of it in the mean time than that's even better.

Really people, are there no other games you could be playing right now? REALLY?!

Torchlight 2 is already giving Diablo 3 a run for its money, and I have played neither.

They are delaying themselves right back into Diablo 3 territory. But I guess if they need to, they need to.

Well... my original plan of playing Torchlight 2 until D3 came out appears to be a faulty one. 

Look, Torchlight 2. I can't guarantee that I will buy you once Diablo 3 comes out. The only way I will buy you is if you release a couple months ahead of Diablo 3.

well as long as they get it out before Diablo 3 they could be good

Bummer... was really hoping for it this winter.

Well that sucks. I'm far more interested in this than Diablo 3.

This game is doomed to failure if it doesn't come out at least a month before Diablo 3. Shame about Runic, I liked that company, hate to see them go down like this.

Ok by me, I'll have a new PC built by then. Will definitely be a day 1 purchase for me though, I think I spent over 100 hours with the first one.

Torchlight 2 could be an amazing Vita game. Make it so!

As long as this out before Diablo 3 I'll be happy.

I thought that was pretty self-explanatory by the fact that it's mid-November and we hadn't heard anything from them since E3, but okay Patrick.

I really hope this doesn't get lost in the Diablo III shuffle.

diablo 3 is gonna fuck them up

i'm getting this AND diablo 3 either way, so i don't really care when it comes out.  also, the entire game development community needs to push pause for the next 12-15 months so i can finish the ones i've already got

this just in. this game is gonna get snuffed out almost completely by diablo 3.

Any news on the beta date?

The knew they needed to come out before D3. They even said as much themselves. I wonder why development ran so much longer than they'd planned.

Didn't they say that the game would release this year unless someone on their dev team died?

RIP someone on Runic's dev team.

Screw it then. I am gonna get Diablo 3 instead.

Oh damn, as much as I like Torchlight, everyone knows Diablo might just gobble it up.

I'll probably pick it up for $5 and quickly become bored like I did with the first one.

Torchlight felt really dull compared to Diablo II. Also, the skill system was just kind of poorly designed in a lot of ways. Being able to spend skill points on merchant skills (when those points could otherwise be spent on combat skills) as if it was a more open ended style role playing game seemed particularly dumb. That's kind of a minor thing, but it just illustrates how the skill design is kind of all over the place and not really well thought out.

In the end, Diablo II combat just felt right. I haven't seen any other dungeon crawler get it quite right. Also, I want online play. More specifically, I want online play that is run on the developer end so people don't just hex edit their characters and items or what have you. Save for some free to play offerings, it seems that Diablo II is still the only one of these games to ever have done that. Yeah, some people don't want an online-only dungeon crawler (including people looking to pirate it, obviously), which...to me, that's just their loss, because I think the online hooks are what gave Diablo II such longevity (and I had dial-up back when it came out, like most people).

Anyway, I'll be pleasantly surprised if Torchlight 2 is a great game instead of merely okay filler like the first one was, but I'm not getting my hopes up. When they're only charging $20 for it, it sounds like the devs aren't either. It will probably be better than a lot of dungeon crawlers, but that's not saying a whole lot when I feel like Diablo II is the only one that was ever really anything special.

As much as I enjoyed the first one, it got to the stage where I just got bored of it. It's a great game but found it somewhat repititve.

I know Runic is under pressure to release before DIII. I am glad they are doing the right thing and delaying to get the game right. I'll be buying both DIII and T2 regardless of release dates, as both predecessors were excellent.

A bit of a bummer, but more polish is always a good thing. I can wait.

Needs to hit the street ahead of diablo 3 or it's in trouble

I figure there's room for both games. Diablo games have a lot of content but they aren't endless, especially without an expansion pack. People who like hack-and-slash-and-loot games will probably end up buying both.

Let me guess, someone stole your sweet role...