Hytale’s Rough Journey After The Riot Acquisition
Hytale has always had a huge amount of hype behind it. The sandbox RPG, often compared to Minecraft but with bigger ambitions, looked like it could become a new go to game for PC players who love building, crafting and adventures.
But after Riot Games acquired Hypixel Studios, development went off track. According to original co founder Simon Collins Laflamme, four years of work were poured into rebuilding the game’s engine instead of actually improving gameplay. In his own words, that time is basically gone.
Simon recently reacquired Hytale from Riot in November 2025 and has been very open about the state the game was in when he got it back. He describes feeling anger more than anything else about how those years were spent.
He explained that four years of engineering went into a new engine that will not even be used. That meant not only lost time, but also lost momentum, fewer chances to iterate and a lack of real player feedback. For a live PC game, that cycle of updating, testing and reacting to the community is crucial.
When Simon took control again, Hytale was, in his words, barely playable. Core systems that any PC gamer expects to just work were completely broken. He listed the problems plainly.
- Camera
- Movement
- Combat
- Crafting
- Building
- Game loop
- Sounds
- Rendering
Basically everything that makes a game feel responsive and fun on your PC was in trouble. From a player’s perspective that means clunky controls, visual issues, broken feedback and a loop that does not keep you engaged.
Simon said it should have taken years to repair all of this. Instead the new team pushed hard and claims they got Hytale into a playable and actually fun state within weeks. That does not mean the game is ready for a full release, but it does mean the foundations are finally there.
Early Access, Lower Price, And Rebuilding Trust
One of the most interesting parts of Hytale’s comeback story is how honest Simon has been about the current quality of the game. He has consistently told fans not to overhype the first version they will be able to play.
Shortly after reclaiming Hytale, he released sixteen minutes of what he called raw and broken gameplay. This was not a polished trailer. It was a deliberate move to show where the game truly was after years of development limbo. PC Gamer’s own preview was actually less harsh than Simon’s self assessment, but the message was clear. Do not expect a perfect launch build.
That philosophy carried over to Hytale’s pricing. When announcing early access plans, Simon confirmed that Hytale will enter early access at a twenty dollar price point. He called that an aggressively low price and said that charging more simply did not feel right because in his view the game is not good yet.
For PC gamers this is both a warning and a promise. You will get in early, you will see rough edges and missing features, but you will also be part of the process of turning Hytale from good to great. Simon and his team are betting that transparency and fair pricing will help them rebuild trust with a community that has been waiting for years.
He summed up the mindset clearly. The vision is clear and progress is fast, but the team knows they still have years of work ahead to make up for lost time. There is no victory lap yet, only a push to keep improving the game.
The New Development Approach And What It Means For Players
How is the team turning Hytale around so quickly after inheriting such a broken state? Simon shared some surprisingly straightforward rules they are following internally.
- No meetings
- Trust the team
- Push to main and pray
- Solid vision, no prototypes
- Cut some corners and pay tech debt later
In practice this means less time in planning and endless discussions, and more time actually building the game. Features are implemented as version one as quickly as possible. Instead of making five different prototypes of a single mechanic to chase perfection, they ship a first pass and improve it later.
This matches the lower expectations they have set with early access. Since players have been warned that Hytale will not be a flawless experience on day one, the team does not need to over engineer every system before anyone can touch it. They can ship, gather feedback, then refine.
From a PC player perspective this has pros and cons. On the plus side you get:
- Faster updates and more visible progress
- A chance to shape systems while they are still flexible
- A feeling that the developers are listening rather than hiding behind marketing
On the downside you should be ready for bugs, rough edges and big changes that might break your favorite builds or worlds as they fix that future tech debt they are knowingly taking on.
One more notable decision is that Hytale will not be launching on Steam for early access. Hypixel has said they want to focus on the game itself rather than deal with a wave of negative reviews from players who may not fully understand what state the game is in at launch.
That choice may frustrate some PC gamers who prefer to keep their library in one place, but it also lines up with the overall theme. Start small, be transparent, iterate fast and avoid anything that distracts from actually improving gameplay.
There is still no set release date for Hytale’s early access launch, and no firm timeline on when a full version might arrive. For now, what matters is that the project has been pulled out of development limbo, the basics are finally working, and the team is committed to a gameplay first approach.
For players who have been watching Hytale for years, this might not be the spectacular reveal they once imagined. But it might be exactly what the game needs to finally become the PC sandbox adventure it was always meant to be.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/its-a-damn-miracle-we-were-able-to-salvage-hytale-original-co-founder-and-new-owner-simon-collins-laflamme-says-after-years-in-development-at-riot-it-was-barely-playable/
