A few years ago Torchlight Frontiers was announced as a pseudo-spinoff title which would focus on being a live service, always online game with all the negative trappings associated with that business model. Thankfully its developers have now walked back this decision and are reworking the game into Torchlight III, a true sequel to the franchise.

If you have not played these games before Torchlight I and II are very solid ARPGs that aim less to be Diablo killers like many games in this genre do, but instead tries to do its own thing with a unique art style and world that has earned it a loyal playerbase.

Frontiers rubbed many the wrong way during its public alpha testing, and this feedback from early players is what drove the changes and the game’s new direction.

Max Schaefer, who helped create both Diablo and Torchlight, said as much in the announcement video for Torchlight III.

On top of changing the direction here, this new game will also be on Steam instead of the Arc platform, so if you want to play this title you won’t need to download yet another launcher.

You can click around the Steam page to see more of the early details here, as well as the vague “2020” release window. The announcement section also contains some promising details as part of the move away from the live service model, such as the removal of a real money store and the ability to play in offline mode without an internet connection.

While PC on Steam is the lead platform here, console ports are promised “shortly after” though we’re not sure if that means they will still arrive this year.

IF all these changes and a new direction can turn Torchlight III into a game worth playing remains to be seen, but it is very refreshing to see developers actually listen to their players.