The Minecraft-like adventure game Hytale is out now in early access, and it’s been a bumpy, unusual road to release. Here is a quick primer on Hytale’s lengthy development, cancellation, and resurrection, culminating in its release on January 13.
What is Hytale?
Hytale is an adventure game that “blends the freedom of a sandbox with the momentum of an RPG.” The game is set in a procedurally generated world that has dungeons to explore and creatures to interact with. The game has Minecraft-like stylized graphics.
The game launched on January 13 in early access with “core” systems, including exploration, combat, building, minigames, and community-run servers. The game will expand over time with more features.
Why Riot canceled Hytale
Developer Hypixel Games started development on Hytale in 2015, with the work being done by Minecraft players from the Hypixel server. Riot was funding the development and later bought the studio. In June 2025, Riot canceled Hytale after a decade of development. But why?
“Over time, as our vision evolved and the genre matured around us, the bar kept rising,” Hypixel said in a now-deleted blog post from June 2025. “Our technical ambitions grew more complex, and even after a major reboot of the game engine, the team found that Hytale still wasn’t as far along as it needed to be.”
Riot gave developers “generous severance and resources” to find new jobs, with Hypixel praising Riot for showing a “genuine effort to take care of the people behind the work.”
Hytale returns
Normally, when a game gets canceled and the studio behind it shutters, that’s the end of the road–but that was not the case for Hytale and developer Hypixel.
In November 2025, Hypixel announced that Hytale was saved. “When we saw the community’s reaction [to the original cancellation], we knew we had to act. Although we hadn’t been involved with Hytale since 2020, Hytale and its community have always been something we cherished,” the developer said.
Hypixel made a deal with Riot for Hytale “without seeing the full state of the project,” and as such, Hypixel said there were “massive risks” in making such a deal. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
“We negotiated the deal, rehired 30 developers, secured funding, and made the call to return to the legacy engine and original vision,” the developer said.
The funding came in the form of a “10-year personal funding commitment” from Hypixel co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme and other members of the original core team. “No investors or publishers,” Hypixel said.
Riot celebrates Hytale’s early-access launch
Riot released a statement on Hytale’s launch day congratulating the team on bringing Hytale to market after such a long, strange development cycle. “Congrats on early access,” Riot said.
Hytale is out now, and it’s only going to grow
Hytale is out now in early access, and people can buy the Starter Edition for $20 to play. Players must use the Hytale Launcher, as the game is not on Steam or any other popular digital game store.
It’s an early-access game, so players can expect missing features and bugs. “Demand has exceeded our expectations, which means launch week will be bumpy, but we’ll get everyone in,” the developer said.
As mentioned, Hypixel only acquired Hytale back in November 2025, and in those eight weeks, the studio “worked on a 4+ year-old build of the game, merged hundreds of branches, fixed core systems such as camera, movement, combat, crafting, building, audio, and rendering, squashed thousands of bugs, and added numerous new features.”
Given the short turnaround, Hypixel stressed to players that Hytale, in its current state, is “rough and unfinished,” but is good enough to show off “the game’s potential.”
“We are having a great time working on the game, and we hope you share the same joy playing,” Hypixel added.
Hypixel plans to add many more features to Hytale over time, including an Adventure Mode with “rich story and narrative elements,” along with official minigames and social features, among other things.
Additionally, Hypixel is planning to bring Hytale to console “at a later stage.” A mobile version is under evaluation, the developer said. As for a Steam release, Hypixel said Steam is a “great platform and marketing tool,” but the studio “might never need” to release the game there.