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Torchlight 3
Product Reviews

Torchlight 3 studio Echtra Games, acquired by Zynga in 2021 to help it move into PC and console gaming, is being closed without doing that

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Four years after acquiring the studio, Zynga has confirmed with IGN that Torchlight 3 developer Echtra Games is being closed.

“Zynga has made the difficult decision to cease operations at its Echtra studio, ending development on future titles and reducing roles,” the company told the site. “This decision is part of a strategic realignment of the company’s resources and priorities. We will work closely with impacted employees so they are treated with the utmost respect and consideration as we navigate this difficult process.”

Echtra was founded in 2016 by Max Schaefer, one of the co-founders of original Torchlight developer Runic Games and also a co-founder of Diablo studio Blizzard North. The studio’s initial focus was on Torchlight Frontiers, envisioned as an MMO, but in 2020, after “feedback [from testers], discussing with our internal teams, and receiving guidance from our publisher,” Echtra announced a shift to a more conventional standalone game design, and a new title, Torchlight 3.


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Unfortunately, Torchlight 3 lacked the magic of the previous games in the series. While the original Torchlight was an outstanding lightweight action-RPG in 2009 (I played it a lot), Torchlight 3 was “mechanically sound,” we said in our 60% review, but “bland compared to the other options” available in 2020. Its free-to-play roots were also a little too visible in places, with systems “you’d expect to find in a predatory mobile game.”

Less than six months after Torchlight 3’s release, Zynga acquired Echtra, a move CEO Frank Gibeau said would help the mobile-focused company become more of a force in PC and console gaming. Echtra’s first game under the Zynga banner was meant to be a cross-platform RPG developed in partnership with Zynga’s NaturalMotion studio, but the project never made it past that initial announcement.

Notably, the end of Echtra comes less than three months after Zynga, a division of Take-Two Interactive, announced the looming shutdown of NaturalMotion’s Star Wars: Hunters game, a move that also saw the cancellation of its planned release on Steam.

Take-Two laid off roughly 5% of its workforce in April 2024, and in November sold off its indie-style Private Division publishing division and most of its associated games. Take-Two’s share price also took a bit of a tumble (but don’t worry, it bounced back quite nicely) when the company announced the delay of Grand Theft Auto 6 from a planned release in fall 2025 to May 26, 2026—on consoles. A PC version still hasn’t been confirmed.



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EA's Black Panther game reportedly cancelled and studio closed, resulting in more layoffs
Game Updates

EA’s Black Panther game reportedly cancelled and studio closed, resulting in more layoffs

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EA has reportedly cancelled its single-player Black Panther game and closed the studio behind it, resulting in an unspecified number of layoffs.


EA Entertainment president Laura Miele shared the news in an email to staff seen by IGN, insisting today’s Black Panther cancellation, the closure of Cliffhanger Games, and the resulting job losses – as well the recent cancellation of other projects, including an unannounced Titanfall game at Respawn – would help the publisher “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”


EA declined to comment on the number of employees impacted by its latest round of layoffs when approached by IGN (these will reportedly also affect members of the publisher’s mobile and central divisions), but the website says it understands fewer individuals will be affected compared to the 300 job cuts recently made across Respawn and several other teams.


“These decisions are hard,” Miele wrote. “They affect people we’ve worked with, learned from, and shared real moments with. We’re doing everything we can to support them – including finding opportunities within EA, where we’ve had success helping people land in new roles.”


EA announced its Black Panther title back in 2023, confirming it would be handled by its then-new Cliffhanger Games studio in collaboration with Marvel Games. Although few details were shared at the time, it was described as a third-person title set in an “expansive and reactive” version of Wakanda, and still “early in development”. Nothing has been seen of the project since then, but a job listing in 2024 indicated it would be an open-world game.


Black Panther’s cancellation follows EA CEO Andrew Wilson’s comments last year that the publisher would be moving away from “future licensed IP”. And while Miele insisted EA will continue to invest in developer Motive’s Iron Man project and Respawn’s third Star Wars: Jedi game, she suggested the focus will now be on a small number of its own franchises, specifically Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends. That’s in addition to Bioware’s next Mass Effect.


Notably, EA also recently announced it was ending its licensing partnership with the World Rally Championship and “pausing development” on all future rally games – a move which resulted in an undisclosed number of additional layoffs at Codemasters.


A second Black Panther project – publisher Skydance Games’ Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, which is being penned by Uncharted writer Amy Hennig – was recently delayed into next year.



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Campfire Cabal "Sunstone Teaser" image - hand-drawn tall ship in high seas
Product Reviews

THQ Nordic studio that was set to be closed in 2023 somehow escaped the Embracer death spiral and is now working on a new RPG

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This is a bit of a weird one: Two years after announcing its planned closure in the aftermath of the Embracer Group’s $2 billion implosion, Campfire Cabal revealed today that it “was never shut down” at all, and that it is in fact working on a new addition to the Expeditions series of historical RPGs.

“If you follow the insider news, you are aware that it’s been a rough couple of years in the game industry,” the studio wrote. “Investment dried up, studios shut down, countless developers lost their jobs, and games were cancelled left and right.”

That’s putting it mildly. A quick catch-up on how we got here: Campfire Cabal was founded in September 2022 under Embracer’s THQ Nordic label to “focus on high-quality, narrative-driven RPGs.” But less than a year later a massive investment deal fell through at the last minute, and Embracer’s wings were suddenly and brutally clipped: Hundreds of people were laid off (although none of the executives responsible for the mess, of course) and numerous studios closed, including—apparently—Campfire Cabal.


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“It is no secret that Embracer Group has recently entered restructuring,” creative director Jonas Wæver wrote in August 2023. “As part of this restructuring process, THQ Nordic has been told to close Campfire Cabal. This decision was not related to the work we’ve been doing at the studio but was made from a purely financial standpoint.”

Wæver said at the time that studio management and THQ Nordic “have not given up on Campfire Cabal,” and that “we are still pursuing our options for finding a good resolution to this situation,” although to my reading that came off almost entirely as forced optimism, especially given that his announcement was literally entitled “Studio Closure.” And yet, here we are.

“Though we did have to say goodbye to many of our colleagues, the studio survived and a compact team continued the project we had started in 2022. At the end of March of 2025, we received the green light to scale back up and transition into full production,” Campfire Cabal wrote today.

“We are extremely grateful that there were people within the group who fought to keep us alive through the turmoil, and that we can now emerge on the other side with renewed vigour.”

Campfire Cabal also finally confirmed today that it’s working on a new Expeditions RPG, something previously assumed but never officially announced, and that it was responsible for a surprise Expeditions: Rome patch that dropped in November 2024. Details weren’t shared but, like previous games in the series, “it’s set in a new period of our history and in a new part of the world.”



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