Perfect World Closes Down Runic Games and Motiga

We’ve got some bad news if you’re fan of the Torchlight series or the Gigantic MOBA. Yesterday news spread that the studios behind these titles have been closed down by Perfect World. The official press release as always is full of rhetoric bullshit, but don’t let them fool you. Runic Games and Motiga are history. The “Seattle office” was the only one of Runic and the corpse that is Motiga will only run Gigantic in maintenance mode.

It’s true, Runic Games has been closed. Our statement is on the website: https://t.co/uSWZ4X0XlW

Thank you for being part of our story. <3

— Runic Games (@RunicGames) November 3, 2017

Motiga was founded in 2010 and it seems like Gigantic was their only title. Runic Games obviously has a more rich history dating back to Blizzard. Founded in 2008 by former leads of Blizzard North and creators of Diablo, their action RPG Torchlight became a much anticipated title. It unfortunately never lived up to they hype due to many reasons, but the award-winning game always had a dedicated fan base.

Both Motiga and Runic Games released new games in July and August. In retrospect it certainly looks like these were the studios last shots and after  both Gigantic and Hub, an action-adventure game, failed to perform, the parent company impatiently pulled the plug. It’s especially surprising in terms of Gigantic, which received a lot of positive reviews and temporarily even got picked up by major Twitch streamers.

We wish the affected employees all the best and hope they’ll land on their feet elsewhere. You deserve better!

What Does It Mean for Neverwinter?

This obviously doesn’t directly impact Neverwinter. But it tells you a whole lot about how PWE is operating. And let’s not kid ourselves, they are the worst. They are neither game enthusiasts nor caring for franchises, products or people. They own assets and if one doesn’t net money any longer, it’ll get cut in a heartbeat.

Now Cryptic still stands and you gotta think that if something was about to happen there as well, it would have been happened yesterday as well. Which probably means the Crpytic MMOs despite many doomsayers are indeed healthy? You could even reason that the studio is now even a stronger part of PWE’s portfolio since two other North American assets got closed down.

Anyway, Neverwinter players shouldn’t be too worried about this news, but there are always doubts when PWE is your publisher.

Did you player the other titles? What’s your take on our trigger-happy publisher? Share your thoughts in the comments below and visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

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