Barely 24 hours after submitting a "final counter offer" to acquire canceled survival game Hytale from its new owner Riot Games, Simon Collins-Laflamme, founder of original developer Hypixel, says he has now begun "active discussions" with the publisher.
"I'm in active discussions with Riot Games about acquiring Hytale," Collins-Laflamme announced Wednesday afternoon. "Updates will be limited for now as we work through it. Thank you for believing in Hytale."
That's all we've heard for the time being, though earlier today, Collins-Laflamme got back to a fan wondering if "there's a chance" the cancelled survival game lives on at a new home. Collins-Laflamme responded with a shot from The Office featuring a well-known line: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
In July, Collins-Laflamme seemed to half-joke that he'd be willing to spend $25 million buying Hytale back from Riot in order to get the game finished. On Tuesday, he put his money where his mouth was, apparently offering Riot "10x what the true market value is" to regain control of the game. The final value of this offer, and the price or terms discussed in the subsequent and evidently ongoing negotiations with Riot, is unknown.
"They have no team, no one can even start or compile the game anymore," Collins-Laflamme said following the offer. "I hired most who could and will continue to do so in the coming days. Hytale is for the players, by the players."
Hytale had been in the works for about 10 years when it was abruptly canceled in June. The Minecraft-inspired voxel survival game grew beyond the Hypixel Minecraft server into a standalone title, but reportedly grew too big, with some ex-developers saying the game collapsed under its own weight due to mismanagement and over-scoping.
Collins-Laflamme previously said that, as early as 2020, Hytale seemed, in his eyes, to be "maximum 2 years away from a PC release."
If he is indeed able to acquire the IP, assemble a development team, salvage whatever the current build looks like, and ultimately get some version of the game launch-ready, I'd expect that to take a couple of years.
Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone previously said saving Hytale isn't something he's "thinking about too much" thanks to his next game Haunted Chocolatier, but "if something were presented to me, I would be open to entertaining the idea."
