Torchlight Sells 500,000; Developer Bought by Perfect World

Additionally, China-based MMO publisher and developer Perfect World has just announced (via Joystiq) that it has acquired a majority stake in Runic Games for around $8.4 million. Runic is currently working on an MMORPG version of Torchlight, which is slated to be a free-to-play game likely supported by micro-transactions. This is a popular business model in China and should be a successful partnership for both parties.

Perfect World was already lined up as the publisher for the Torchlight MMORPG, which is planned for a worldwide release. It is unclear which entity controls the intellectual property, which could be of specific concern to Runic employees.

Runic Games, born of ex-Flagship Software employees, lost all of its work and intellectual property rights to Mythos, an action MMORPG it was developing for Korean company HanbitSoft. When Flagship was closed, Mythos and Hellgate: London went over to HanbitSoft and Comerica Bank respectively and are in continuing development through its subsidiaries.

Torchlight is an isometric action RPG in the vein of Blizzard's Diablo franchise. Members of Runic Games worked of Diablo, Diablo II, and Hellgate: London.

The Mac version of Torchlight is currently exclusive to Steam, featuring Steam Play, which allows for dual-ownership across PC and Mac. A DRM-free, boxed version of Torchlight Mac is forthcoming.