Riot Games Congratulates Hytale Launch Six Months After Canceling It

Riot Games canceled the highly anticipated game Hytale and shut down Hypixel Studios in June 2025, disappointing many Minecraft fans. Hytale, the main project at Hypixel Studios, had been in development for a decade, but Riot Games determined it was too ambitious and didn’t meet their quality standards, leading to its cancellation.

In November, four months after initial discussions, Simon Collins-Laflamme, who created Hypixel, officially obtained the rights to Hytale from Riot Games and resumed development to bring the game to life.

So, Hytale finally went into early access yesterday, and it’s been wild! What’s really funny is that Riot Games actually gave it a shout-out, which a lot of people are calling pretty ironic, considering… well, you know. It’s definitely a talking point in the gaming community right now.

Hytale Skyrockets Despite Earlier Cancelation

Hytale was originally abandoned by Riot Games over six months ago. They decided the game couldn’t be successfully finished, explaining that continuing development would have been too expensive and wouldn’t have been worthwhile.

I honestly couldn’t believe it when Hytale finally launched into early access yesterday! So many of us fans had started to think it might never happen, but here it is!

Hytale quickly became incredibly popular, reaching 440,000 viewers on Twitch – a number usually seen with big, established game releases. While it still has some issues to work out, fans who have followed its development for years are already enjoying it.

Riot Games, recently responsible for shutting down the game Hytale, announced congratulations on the early access release of another game via a social media post.

Riot Games

@riotgames

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Congrats on early access 👊

3:24 pm · 13 Jan 2026

51.3KReply

Read 443 replies

In response, the Hytale team commented: ‘Thank you for helping bring Hytale home.’

But fans were quick to criticize the situation:

  • ‘This is like thanking your captor for beating you up.’
  • ‘Hytale exists in spite of Riot, not because of them.’
  • ‘Genuinely, how did they help lmao’

Riot Games might regret canceling a game that has become one of the most successful independent releases in recent years.

Written by

Grant Taylor-Hill

Senior Editor

Grant’s love of video games began very early – he was playing on the Amstrad CPC before he could even walk! Now, he’s a skilled gamer who enjoys playing on many different systems, and his passion for gaming never fades.

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2026-01-14 17:21