Zynga has officially closed Echtra Games, the development studio responsible for Torchlight 3. The team had been working on an unannounced cross-platform action RPG during the four years following its acquisition.
IGN has confirmed that the San Francisco-based studio will cease operations by the end of the month. While the exact number of affected employees is unknown, LinkedIn shows 61 people currently listing the studio as their employer.
Zynga issued the following statement to IGN:
Zynga has made the difficult decision to cease operations at its Echtra studio, ending development on future titles and reducing roles. 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 Games was founded by Max Schaefer, a co-founder of Torchlight developer Runic Games who previously co-founded Blizzard North and co-created Diablo. Schaefer left Runic after his fellow co-founders departed the studio, establishing Echtra under investor Perfect World to develop a Torchlight MMO. Over time, the project evolved, first becoming Torchlight Frontiers and later Torchlight 3. Following Zynga's acquisition of Echtra Games in 2021, Torchlight 3 remained with Perfect World while the studio began developing "a new, unannounced RPG for cross-platform play" in collaboration with NaturalMotion, the studio behind CSR Racing and Star Wars: Hunters.
Unfortunately, Echtra Games' RPG was never officially announced or revealed. The specific reasons behind the studio's closure remain unclear, though it comes just three months after Zynga announced it would shut down NaturalMotion's Star Wars: Hunters later this year—a decision made only nine months after the game's launch. Notably, Zynga is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, publisher of Grand Theft Auto, which gradually dismantled and sold its Private Division publishing label earlier this year. The publisher also laid off approximately 5% of its workforce just over a year ago and canceled several projects.
