PWE bought the brand and fired the original devs?

Runic shut their doors down. I am not familiar with reasons behind that decision.

Echtra Games belongs to Max Schaefer, one of the creators of Torchlight.

Actually, Eriss is correct in his questioning of a statement.

Perfect World who had major stake in Runic Games shut the studio down.

Echtra Games studio consists of former Runic Games developers.

As far as I know, there are 3 developers from Runic Games studio (One is Max the CEO, the composer and someone else), the rest are from ex-Blizzard/Diablo and other AAA studios.

Yes, this new studio is a mix of Runic Games staff and Blizzard staff.

My hope is that it won't be a game based exclusively on multiplayer or (even worse) with that always-online crap à la Diablo III.

Alas... I read the article and found some words that didn't make me feel so optimistic (to say the least).. such as "shared" and "persistent world"

I'm not interested in persistent or shared worlds at all.. I want a Torchlight game being playable off-line and to be an enjoyable experience in single player too.

EDIT: But it's an MMO, not a new Torchlight game. : (

gog doesnt sell free-to-play games. TF will be a f2p mmo. Abandon all hope

Agree on that. Torchlight Series might not kicked down Diablo from the Thrones, but it was in my top 3 favorite ARPG's besides GD and Diablo 3 (Console Version) for a reason.

Sad to see they go now the MMORPG route, even if it was planned since a long time, because with Perfect World in their back i can't help and feel like with that we won't see another Torchlight 3. Well atleast Runic gave us an amazing last gift with Hob.