Hypixel Studios has officially pulled the plug on Hytale, the once-promising sandbox RPG that many hoped would become the next evolution of Minecraft. After years of development struggles and repeated delays, the studio announced they will cease all work on the game and wind down operations in the coming months.
The journey of Hytale began with tremendous promise back in December 2018, when its announcement trailer exploded across the internet, quickly amassing over 60 million views. The game was created by the team behind the wildly popular Hypixel Minecraft server, aiming to combine sandbox building mechanics with RPG elements, minigames, and robust modding tools.
In 2020, Riot Games acquired Hypixel Studios, injecting significant funding and resources into the project. This acquisition, which initially seemed like a boon for development, may have contributed to the game’s downfall. After the buyout, the team made the fateful decision to switch programming languages from Java and C# to C++, basically starting over from scratch.
“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,” the studio said in their cancellation announcement. This explanation has drawn criticism from gamers and industry professionals alike, who point out that scope management is a basic part of making games.
The development was plagued by what many insiders call “scope creep”—the constant addition of new features and ambitions that went way beyond what was realistic. Despite working on it for almost half a decade, the team never managed to release even a stable alpha or early access version, which is quite surprising given how common such releases are these days.
People close to the project say Hytale went through several total reboots. The biggest came after the Riot acquisition, when the push to support mobile platforms meant they had to rebuild the engine all over again. Every big change wiped out months or years of progress, starting things over without getting any closer to a playable game.
The cancellation comes as more studios across the games industry are cutting projects or restructuring. Riot Games just recently shut down its Riot Forge label and cancelled other projects as part of bigger company-wide budget cuts.
Cubic dreams crushed
For the passionate community that has been following Hytale‘s development since 2018, the cancellation is the end of a long-held dream. Many players saw Hytale as a possible spiritual successor to Minecraft that would tackle common complaints while giving fans better creative tools and more structured gameplay.
Fans looking for something similar might want to check out indie games like Vintage Story and Veloren, which are still building on the sandbox formula inspired by Minecraft while heading in their own direction.
