One of the sad stories of this past summer was the tale of Hytale, a Riot Games-acquired Zelda-esque sandbox MMORPG spun out of the Hypixel Minecraft server over seven years back. It was meant to launch in 2023, but development was clearly backed up, and then in June of this year, just ahead of planned public testing, Riot Games apparently canceled the title and closed the studio behind it. At the time, the lead dev said “after years of pushing forward, adapting, and exploring every possible path, it became clear we couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise.”
But that wasn’t the end of the story, as almost immediately multiple devs and former devs came forward to blast game producers who allegedly created a vast rift between the original Hytale founders and Riot by pushing for expensive alterations to the game’s systems. By July, one of those founders was already musing aloud about fronting the cash to fund a smaller indie team to get the game to the finish line.
Well, he’s pulled it off.
“We are thrilled to announce that we have acquired Hytale from Riot Games,” Hypixel founder Simon Collins-Laflamme writes. “While it didn’t make sense for them to continue developing it in its existing form, they ultimately wanted what’s best for players, and that’s for us to eventually play a revised version of the game.”
Collins-Laflamme then says he’s “rehired more than 30 developers” to “go back to the original vision for Hytale” as part of a “fully independent” studio “committed to funding Hytale for the next 10 years” without investors or publishers. Collins-Laflamme and his group have apparently fully purchased the entirety of the game and will return to the OG engine.
“We’re focused on building the game we always wanted to play, and one that we’d be proud for our kids to play, too,” he writes. “Philippe [Touchette] and I are personally committing funding for the next 10 years. This is our passion project, and we’re here to make it last.”
The rest of the post includes some other bits; we can apparently expect an early access date soon, with a focus on PC versions, an expected early access duration of “at least a few years,” with exploration mode, creative mode, and modding up first and minigames and adventure mode to follow.
Big W for MMO sandbox players, Hytale fans, the devs, and Riot Games too.
