Back in June, Riot Games canceled Hytale, a Minecraft-inspired survival game by Hypixel Studios. This was five years after the League of Legends company acquired the studio in 2015, and the team was shut down as a result. A lot can change in five months, though, ands Hypixel founder Simon Collins-Laflamme recently revealed some good news: he’s been able to get the rights to the project back from Riot to continue making the game.
In a blog post on Hytale’s official site, Collins-Laflamme says Hypixel has rehired “more than 30” developers who were part of the original development team, with more expected to follow. The studio is fully independent now, and is “committed to funding Hytale for the next 10 years.” But the exact terms of the deal with Riot and the source of funding for Hypixel 2.0 haven’t been shared beyond Collins-Laflamme and co-founder Philippe Touchette co-funding the project.
“We are thrilled to announce that we have acquired Hytale from Riot Games,” the announcement reads. “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. We are grateful to Riot Games for making this possible.”
Riot confirmed the news as well, saying the deal is “giving this community its best shot” with a revised version of Hytale. Collins-Laflamme spoke more candidly about the deal on his personal X account, saying that the game may have some “rough edges” right now, but the team wants to get it out to players sooner rather than later. That should come as a relief to fans who have been waiting years for something to actually ship.
“This game has always been close to my heart, and I’m excited to bring it back home,” he writes. “Real talk: Hytale isn’t some polished AAA release waiting in the wings. It’s messy. It’s janky. And there’s a lot of work to be done. My plan? Get it out to you as soon as possible. No more waiting. You’ll get to play it, rough edges and all. It won’t be perfect on day one. My hope is that together, we’ll shape it into something truly special.”
Hypixel says it will be rolling out its full early access plan, along with some transparent behind-the-scenes communication, so people know more about the state of the game following its recent cancellation saga. For now, the team asks that fans “be patient when things break and trust the long-term vision.” Hopefully, it all turns out well for everyone involved, and this can be a win for both game preservation and keeping developers employed. God knows we need more stories like that these days.
