It has come to light that Torchlight developers Runic Games has filed a new trademark, for the word HOB.
Runic is a Seattle based studio, and subsidiary of Chinese game company Perfect World. They made waves releasing Torchlight and Torchlight 2 on 2009 and 2012, respectively.
Part of what made the Torchlight games popular is the fact that much of the company’s staff were former employees of Blizzard North, the same team that made Diablo, Diablo 2, and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. The company was founded by Blizzard North’s founders Max and Erich Schaefer, alongside Travis Baldree, who has his own RPG to his credit, Fate.
On top of that, they also have staff who worked on Mythos for Flagship Studios in Seattle. These developers also came from Blizzard North before working on Mythos.
If fans were hoping for a Torchlight sequel from this, you may want to curb that enthusiasm. Travis Baldree and Eric Schaefer left the company last year to form a new studio, Double Damage Games. They also made it clear upon Torchlight 2’s release that they have no plans to make an MMO for the series.
Even back then, they expressed a weariness in making more isometric dungeon crawlers like Diablo, so whatever HOB is, it is probably not going to be another game like it.
Another interesting element to this trademark filing is it indicates the game could come to PCs and consoles (but not mobile), and they may distribute the game digitally, via peer to peer, and on disc. Neither Torchlight game ever got released on disc, so if ever, HOB would be Runic Games’ first retail release.
What do you hope HOB could be? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Image is from Torchlight 2.
