Echtra Games, the San Francisco-based studio founded in 2016 by Diablo and Torchlight co-creator Max Schaefer, is now owned by Zynga, the company that gave us FarmVille.
Fresh off the lukewarm release of Torchlight III, Echtra Games joins Zynga to work on an unannounced cross-platform action role-playing game in partnership with Zyngaâs NaturalMotion Studio. According to the official announcement, Zynga acquired Echtra to strengthen its cross-platform development capabilities for future projects. The term âcross-platformâ appears in the announcement no less than a dozen times.
âMax and his team at Echtra Games are responsible for some of the most legendary game properties ever created, and they are experts in the action RPG genre and cross-platform development. Iâm excited to welcome the Echtra Games team into the Zynga family,â said Frank Gibeau, chief executive officer of Zynga via that official announcement. âThis acquisition will be instrumental in growing our iconic licenses and brands from mobile to PCs and consoles, while helping to further expand Zyngaâs total addressable market.â
We probably wonât get a FarmVille action RPG out of this, but I can dream.