The sudden cancellation of Hytale is currently affecting countless fans and those involved. Thousands are even trying to save the potential competitor to Minecraft, employing very different strategies.
Why the cancellation of Hytale? Last week, Aaron Donaghey, CEO of Hypixel Studios, announced the end of the studio and the cessation of work on Hytale. Hypixel is set to be gradually dissolved over the coming months.
Apparently, Riot Games (League of Legends) was not willing to invest sufficient additional funds into the studio, which it bought in 2020, after 10 years of development and ongoing delays to make the team’s envisioned vision a reality.
Here is one of the trailers for Hytale:
Sudden cancellation causes a state of emergency
What happened after the announcement? A certain hype had built up around Hytale over the years, which is now reflected in the reactions of many fans.
- Under the hashtag #SaveHytale, the community is campaigning on X for support to finalize Hytale.
- There are several petitions aimed at persuading those responsible at Riot to save Hytale or make the game available as an open-source project – for example, here at change.org, with more than 1,680 signatures.
- Parts of the community are specifically looking for a potential savior and are even trying to entice Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone (the creator of Stardew Valley) to consider the project. His reaction (via X): An investment could pay off, “but I would first need to learn more about the developers’ plans for why it actually failed, and so on.”
- Diverse content creators reportedly held an emergency meeting on Discord, as shown by a participant’s picture @not_mynes. His accompanying comment: “Hytale creators are currently acting like there’s a national emergency in the Pentagon.”
- There are several open letters from fans to Riot, aiming to achieve something similar, such as this one on X.
In one of these letters on X, the community expresses the desire for decision-makers to engage in discussions with Simon Collins-Laflamme. The original founder of Hypixel had commented on X about the cancellation and stated that he would be willing to invest 25 million USD under certain conditions to see Hytale completed.
Among the conditions he mentioned is primarily that his family must agree to this “enormous challenge that will affect all aspects of life”. However, the team would also likely need to be reduced, the focus would need to be redirected, some areas made available as open source, and planned but not yet finalized features cut.
What was Hytale supposed to be? Hytale was announced in 2018 and was meant to be a sandbox RPG set in a procedurally generated fantasy world. Due to its blocky appearance, comparisons to Minecraft were inevitable. The developers at Hypixel Studios were inspired by their own Minecraft server, “Hypixel”, and started development in 2015.
Their ambitions to create a better Minecraft were grand. The first trailer released on YouTube thrilled viewers and garnered over 61 million views. The release was planned for 2021. However, that did not happen.
In the regular updates from the developers, starting in 2022, it was mentioned that the technical framework of Hytale was to be developed from the ground up. Furthermore, ambitions kept growing, and the game became increasingly complex. The developers did not provide a new release date. This circumstance led to growing skepticism within the community: millions are waiting for a sandbox RPG, but even 6 years later, there is no sign of the ‘Minecraft killer’.
