In news that has me verging on a cryface, Runic Games has announced that Torchlight 2 won’t be seeing an Xbox LIVE Arcade launch for the moment – or maybe ever – because the game is simply too big.

According to CEO Max Schaefer, the first game only barely managed to squeeze into Microsoft’s XBLA size limit, currently standing at 2 GB. Of course, that’s a lot more than it used to be – when the XBLA service first launched in 2005, the size limit was 50 MB, later increased to 150 MB, then 350 MB. A bit of investigative journalism reveals that the 2 GB size limit is unlikely to change, however, as it’s apparently a “technical limitation”.

“With Torchlight 2 there is a little more complication as far as just being able to do a straight port, as we did with Torchlight 1,” Schaefer tells Eurogamer. “In all likelihood, if Torchlight 2 gets to the Xbox it would be probably fairly comprehensively redesigned.”

“We would have to be redoing the interface for a console release anyway, just like we did with Torchlight 1, so it would probably make sense to do something more specifically tailored to the Xbox.”

He adds that the company would “absolutely consider” a full retail release for console instead, although they’ve not made any plans to do so as yet.

Compared to its predecessor, the sequel includes much more content, as well as co-op multiplayer – a feature sorely lacking the first time around.

The game is still on track for a PC release “definitely, 100 per cent, for sure this year”.