Runic puts a positive spin on Torchlight piracy in China

Runic boss Max Schaefer has Torchlight has been pirated over 5 million times in China, but since it knew such a thing was an inevitably in the Asian market, they see it as a way to promote the upcoming MMO based on the series.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Schaefer told the site: “Millions and millions of copies of Torchlight [were] downloaded from the illicit market in certain Asian territories. And that’s fine with us."

"We knew it was gonna happen," he continued. "For us, we kind of see it as, down the road, we’re building an audience. We’ve long since announced that we’re going to be doing an MMO, and y’know, we kind of view it as a marketing tool for us.

"We’re going to have millions of people who are familiar with our franchise, familiar with our style, and who are going to be ready customers when we do a global MMO.”

The Torchlight MMO was announced back in 2009, but was put on the backburner for development of Torchlight II. Perfect World is to publish the game worldwide upon its release, which will not carry a subscription, according to Runic.

Torchlight II due for release sometime this summer on PC.