After protracted development at Hypixel, a sale to Riot Games, many quiet years, and an abrupt cancellation and studio closure earlier this year, Hytale is, somehow, back. Riot has sold the Minecraft-inspired survival game back to Hypixel founder Simon Collins-Laflamme, who plans to release it in early access "as soon as possible."
Collins-Laflamme broke the news on Twitter on Monday. "We did it. Hytale is saved. We have acquired Hytale from Riot Games," he writes.
"This game has always been close to my heart, and I’m excited to bring it back home," he adds.
Collins-Laflamme is quick to set expectations: this game is not finished. The new-again owner's priority is getting it into players' hands in early access for more open, collaborative development.
"Real talk: Hytale isn't some polished AAA release waiting in the wings," he says. "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."
Riot shared the news on its own account. "After evaluating multiple offers, we’ve reached an agreement to return Hytale to [Simon Collins-Laflamme], giving this community its best shot at experiencing a revised version of the game," the studio writes in a quote tweet.
Collins-Laflamme previously said he had offered "10x what the true market value" of Hytale would be in his eagerness to save the project. Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone reportedly entertained the idea of stepping in to fund the project, but seemingly stopped at pondering it.
A blog post from the Hytale Team, featuring a snippet from Collins-Laflamme specifically, goes into more depth on the state of the game and the team's plans for the revived project.
Collins-Laflamme is co-funding the game with fellow Hypixel co-founder Philippe Touchette, and will be "directly involved" with its creative vision. Touchette will be "overseeing financial responsibility, and helping structure the finances for the acquisition."
Perhaps most importantly, he confirms that "we have rehired more than 30 developers who know this game inside and out, with additional returns expected in the coming days," following the previously announced "winding down" of Hypixel Studios under Riot.
"Together, we are going back to the original vision for Hytale," Collins-Laflamme says. "We are fully independent and personally committed to funding Hytale for the next 10 years." Separately, the post affirms "we own 100% of Hytale" and have "no investors or publishers."
An early access date for Hytale will apparently be announced "in the coming days," according to the blog post. It will be on Windows PCs at launch, with Linux and Mac versions "attempted" but not guaranteed, and other platforms to come "much later."
Hytale's early access period is expected to last "at least a few years." At launch, only exploration and creative mode will be available; minigames and adventure mode are coming later. Modding, described as "critical to survival," will also be supported at launch: "Run your own servers and create custom content."
How early is this early access? The new Hytale team reckons you can "expect bugs, rough edges, unbalanced content, and frequent updates that break things." The team is, after all, "starting over with a 4-year-old build," choosing to abandon an in-development engine and instead return to the game's "Legacy engine" to save time. (All that talk of tech bloat is really coming into focus now.)
If they stuck with the "Cross-platform Engine," which is apparently "significantly behind in terms of gameplay," the Hytale team estimates it would take "two years before we could consider early access with it." The Legacy version, meanwhile, is playable now, and "we have plans to make it cross-platform later. We are in no rush."
"In the past few days, we've made solid progress toward launching early access," the studio says. "As we move into full production mode, as we complete the transfer of Hytale, you'll see accelerated development in the coming weeks."
"This is not a polished product," the devs reiterate. "This is a raw, unfinished, sometimes broken experience with incredible potential. You'll find placeholder content, unbalanced systems, and frustrating bugs. You'll also find moments of magic, systems that click perfectly, and glimpses of what this could become."
And just to really hammer it home, the post adds: "This is not going to be easy. This is not going to be fast. This is not going to be perfect."
To sum all of that up: Hytale is bruised, but it's back, and it should be playable sooner than later this time. Just be ready to give some jank a big ol' hug.
