Runic Games has just announced that Torchlight II will not be making its 2011 release date. The team has decided to push it back to 2012 so that they can polish the game up to the level of quality that it and its fans deserve. It was also revealed that part of the reason for the delay is that Runic Games plans to run a small beta test to ensure a smooth launch.

In a statement on the Runic Games' official site, Runic Games President Travis Bladree said:

"The first Torchlight was released in record time, but it had plenty of issues that a little more development could have resolved. We didn't have the resources at the time to give Torchlight that treatment. Right at this moment though, we do have those resources for the sequel, and we feel strongly that we should apply them to make this the best game we can make and hopefully one that you'll enjoy and continue to want to play in the future. We've probably had 18 months of full development time on it so far - not excessively long yet, as far as that goes. The amount of time we need to take it the rest of the way is relatively small."

You can read the full statement from Runic Games here.