Hytale's Wild Journey So Far
Hytale has been one of those games that seemed almost mythical for years. Announced as a Minecraft inspired sandbox RPG with big ambitions and a focus on creativity, adventure, and modding, it quickly built a passionate community. Then it disappeared into development limbo.
After more than seven years of work and no public release, Riot Games, which had acquired the studio behind Hytale, officially canceled the project. Riot said the team could not bring Hytale to life in a way that lived up to its original promise. For a lot of fans, that sounded like the end of the story.
Surprisingly, it was not.
Simon Collins Laflamme, co founder of Hypixel and one of the original creators behind Hytale, has now bought the game back from Riot. Instead of quietly sunsetting the project, he is trying to drag it back to what it was meant to be at the start. The new goal is simple but bold: return to the original vision for Hytale before it became a massive, tangled, multi year project.
The catch is that this rescue mission comes with a big reset. The new team is working from an older build of the game. According to Collins Laflamme, that means they effectively lost around four years of development progress during the Riot era. A lot of tech and content will have to be rebuilt or reimagined.
It sounds rough, but it also gives the new crew a chance to cut away all the bloat and pressure that built up over time and focus on making a fun, playable game.
A Fresh Start And A Surprisingly Low Price
One of the most eye catching details from Collins Laflamme’s recent post on X is the price. Hytale is planned to launch into early access for about 20 dollars. He describes this as pricing the game as aggressively low as possible.
That is unusual in a world where many early access games creep up toward full AAA prices. Especially when you remember this is a game that has had a long and expensive history already, plus a current team of around 50 people now working on it.
Collins Laflamme is clear that this move involves real personal financial risk. After personally repurchasing the game and rebuilding a team around it, he is choosing not to chase a higher price tag. He openly says that charging more just did not feel right, especially given the current state of the game.
He is also blunt about the quality level right now. He says that he does not think the game is good yet. The promise is that the team will push to make it good, then great, over time. That level of honesty is rare in marketing speak, but it lines up with the early access philosophy: invite players in early, get feedback, and build up from there.
For comparison, that 20 dollar price point puts Hytale in a similar range to other complex sandbox games like Vintage Story, another voxel style survival and building game that is gaining a lot of attention. It is not a throwaway indie price, but it is also nowhere near premium triple A territory.
- Early access price target: about 20 dollars
- Reason for low price: rebuild trust and match current quality
- Team size: around 50 developers
- Goal: turn the current rough version into something genuinely great over time
Raw Footage, Real Progress, And What To Expect Next
The new Hytale team did not waste any time once they reclaimed the project. Just one day after getting the old build back from Riot, they released 16 minutes of new gameplay footage. They described it as raw and broken, setting expectations low on purpose.
Given the messy history, you might expect something barely functional. Instead, the footage actually looks surprisingly promising. It is clearly rough in places, but there is enough there to give players a sense of the world, the combat, and the building systems that first got people excited years ago.
This fast move to share unpolished gameplay is not just about hype. It is also about resetting the relationship with the community. For nearly a decade, Hytale has mostly been a collection of trailers, concept art, and big promises. Showing an honest, in progress build is a way of saying: this is real, this is what we are working with, and this is where we are heading.
The developers have also confirmed that early access is not some distant dream. In a recent Hytale blog post, the team said that early access is coming in the next few days. That is a huge shift from the endless delays and silence that defined so much of the game’s past.
There will still be the usual modern offerings like special editions for players who want to show extra support or grab some bonus content. But the core experience is planned to be accessible at that lower 20 dollar entry point. For fans who have been waiting since the original announcement, simply being able to play anything at all is a big deal.
Of course, long time sandbox and voxel RPG fans have been burned before. There have been plenty of games with amazing concepts that never quite figured out how to turn that into deep, lasting gameplay. Hytale has already survived cancellation once, and now it has to prove that it is more than just cool ideas and nostalgic trailers.
Still, for the first time in a long time, there is real reason to be cautiously optimistic. The original creator is back in control. The vision is smaller, clearer, and more focused. The price is fair. The team is showing real gameplay instead of just polished teasers. And early access is days away, not years.
If you have been quietly following Hytale since the early days or you just love the idea of a fresh sandbox RPG with Minecraft style creativity and RPG depth, this revival might finally be the moment to pay attention again.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/hytale-honcho-says-early-access-will-be-usd20-because-charging-more-didnt-feel-right-he-doesnt-think-the-game-is-good-yet-but-my-team-and-i-will-push-hard-to-make-it-good-then-great/
