Hytale Dev Issues Statement on the game's early access launch

After years of troubled development, the much-anticipated Minecraft-Inspired open world RPG Hytale finally launched in early access on January 13, 2026, and developer Hypixel Studios founder Simon Collins-Laflamme has “no regrets” about the “miracle” of saving Hytale and get it to a state where it can be released to the fans. The audience heard about first Hytale when it was originally announced back in 2018, but technical and financial issues left the sandbox RPG in a troubled state for many years. After overcoming these challenges and achieving an early access release, the team behind Hytale is locked into adding more content and improvements to the game and is determined to keep doing so Hytale the best it can be.

When Hytale first teased early in its development, fans of open-world sandbox games that Minecraft were excited at the prospect of having another stylized world to explore and make their own. Unfortunately, Hytale hit a number of obstacles, from having the game's base engine completely rebuilt to numerous gameplay issues that needed to be resolved, with even the basics of movement and cameras being “broken” and “barely playable” for the longest time. Hytale and Hypixel Studios was bought outright by Riot Games in 2020, only for it all to be sold back to Collins-Laflamme in 2025 after development died down and rumors started swirling that Hytale had finally been laid to rest. Thankfully, Collins-Laflamme and Hypixel were able to bring the game to a playable state, with fans now able to dive into the world of Hytale in early access.

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Hytale Early Access Launch Is A 'Miracle'

Simon Collins-Laflamme of Hypixel Studios admitted he felt “anger” at how much time was lost on Hytalenotes that the game has “insane potential” but was being re-engineered to fit into a different game engine instead of paying attention to the gameplay features of Hytale. This meant it Hytaleonce it was back in the hands of Hypixel, had a lot of “catching up” to get in an acceptable state to release to players. According to Collins-Laflamme, the rebuilt game engine will never be used, and the team is instead focusing on regaining player trust and establishing momentum while shipping things “at a rapid pace.” Collins-Laflamme calls that a “miracle.” Hytale was saved, but the team has no plans to slow down or celebrate the early access launch. Instead, Hypixel is turning that “anger” and frustration into “focus and execution” to “deliver the game this vision deserves.”

In response to fan questions, Collins-Laflamme revealed that the rapid progress of the game, including the recent first major update for Hytalehas been the result of a “no meetings, trust the team” structure. This includes the team at Hypixel making all features “V1” and then patching updates to make things better later. Collins-Laflamme admits that Hypixel is “cutting some corners” early on to try to improve and expand the game as quickly as possible, with “some technical debt” expected to be paid later. While this may sound worrying, the long-term focus of Hypixel means faster updates that pull in more player feedback to ensure tweaks that provide greater satisfaction for years to come.

The future of Hytale is already looking brighter than before, largely due to Hypixel Studios securing enough funding for the first two years of the game's ongoing development. It remains to be seen how long it will take Collins-Laflamme and the rest of the development team to get Hytale to where they'd like it to be, but the quick turnaround from reclaiming the rights to the game to getting it into an early access state and even launching a first content update seems to indicate that there's still a lot more to come in the development of Hytale.