Torchlight 2 dev wants to avoid paid DLC, pledges free updates

Torchlight 2 is well on its way to becoming a million-seller, according to CEO Max Schaefer, citing the game's "well over a quarter" million pre-orders. Reaching a million sales will make the game instantly profitable, citing a development budget of under $10 million.

Demand for the game, coupled with the rise of digital distribution made it possible for team to price the game at $20--even as it gets favorably compared to the fully-priced Diablo series. That's key to Runic Games' long-term strategy. "In the long run we want to be known as the people who have the best value in gaming," Schaefer said.

He told Kotaku: "We want to build a long-term community. We want to have people that buy our games and stuff for a long long long long time. So it's sort of an investment in the future."

Because of their focus on value, Schaefer promises that all future downloadable content for the game will be free. "Part of our thing is that it's a $20 game, and once you start muddying the waters with paid DLC then it's like, well, it wasn't really $20," he said. "We wanna just avoid that whole thing entirely. We wanna just make it better and better and better."