Zynga Shuts Down Echtra Games | PC Games Insider

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So, here’s the thing—Torchlight 3 devs, Echtra Games? Zynga just shut them down. Yeah, wild, right? I mean, you start a studio, pour your soul into games, and bam! Closed. But, okay, backtrack a bit—this is where Take-Two comes in. They own Zynga now and decided to, I guess, shuffle the deck chairs? “Strategic realignment,” they called it. Sounds all corporate-y and cold, honestly.

Max Schaefer, you might remember him. He’s the brain behind Torchlight and its sequel back in 2012—left Runic Games in 2016, started Echtra. Like, what a wild ride. Anyway, Echtra got in bed with Perfect World, who still hold the rights to Torchlight 3, by the way. And they launched Torchlight 3 in 2020, but you knew that.

Then Zynga swooped in 2021. No one knows for how much, though. Echtra started working on some secret RPG project, helped a bit with CSR Racing, and even dabbled with Star Wars: Hunters. But, apparently, none of that was enough to save them. Zynga’s spokesperson said something like, “We’ve made the tough call to shut Echtra down.” I mean, they threw in some lines about treating the employees right—fingers crossed.

So yeah, lots of big shifts, strategic jargon, and lives affected. Makes you wonder what’s next for the gaming scene. Or maybe it’s just a Tuesday at Zynga. Who knows?