Hytale, a creative sandbox adventure game heavily inspired by Minecraft, has been cancelled by creator Hypixel Studios after spending ten years in development. The studio says it’s “winding down” its operations on the game, though there were several factors that lead to its cancellation.
Hytale began development in 2015 as an attempt to combine the mini-games found in its massively popular Hypixel Minecraft server. It soon morphed into its own RPG sandbox experience built from the ground up. League of Legends company Riot Games invested millions into Hytale before acquiring Hypixel Studios in 2020.
As reported by Eurogamer, Hypixel Studios revealed that it’s sadly cancelling Hytale, a promising sandbox builder inspired by Minecraft, after ten years of development time. The studio released a lengthy statement on its official website confirming that it would be ceasing development on the game. “This is not the outcome any of us – at Hypixel or at Riot – wanted,” it wrote. “But after years of pushing forward, adapting, and exploring every possible path, it became clear we couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise.”
The statement continued:
“Game development is brutally hard – especially when you’re trying to build something original that speaks to a creative, passionate community. Over time, as our vision evolved and the genre matured around us, the bar kept rising. Our technical ambitions grew more complex, and even after a major reboot of the game engine, the team found that Hytale still wasn’t as far along as it needed to be. It became clear we’d need a lot more time to get it to a place where it could support the ambitious vision for the game.”
“We looked at reducing scope, adjusting timelines, and finding new angles to keep moving forward. But each of those options would have meant compromising on what made Hytale special in the first place,” it added, stating that every possible avenue was explored to bring the game’s development back in line to no avail.
“We’re also incredibly proud of the work we did: the world we imagined, the risks we took, and the heart we poured into this project,” it added. “None of that can be taken away. And just to clarify – this doesn’t affect the Hypixel server on Minecraft. It’s run separately from Hypixel Studios and will continue to operate as usual.”
Source: Eurogamer
