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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Hytale was cancelled in June 2025, but the story did not end there: its original co-founders reacquired the game from Riot Games in November 2025, restarted development, and released it into early access on January 13, 2026. The comeback also meant abandoning a newer cross-platform engine in favor of an older, playable PC build. At launch, the studio warned that the game was unfinished and buggy.
Was Hytale cancelled?
Yes. Riot Games completed its acquisition of Hypixel Studios on April 16, 2020. In June 2025, development on Hytale stopped and Hypixel Studios began winding down, according to retrospective updates on Riot’s acquisition announcement. The Hytale Team later described June 23, 2025 as the date it announced the end of development and the start of the studio wind-down.
The cancellation was not permanent. On November 17, 2025, the original co-founders announced that they had reacquired Hytale from Riot and would resume work on it. The founders credited community support and the #savehytale movement for helping bring the game back; that is their account of the revival, not an independently established explanation of why the sale happened.
Who bought Hytale back from Riot?
Hytale’s original co-founders reacquired the game. Simon Collins-Laflamme, writing for the Hytale Team on November 17, 2025, announced, “We are thrilled to announce that we have acquired Hytale from Riot Games.” The founders said they had not been involved with Hytale since 2020.
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- Polished core systems
- Exploration
- Flexible combat
- Robust building
In the same announcement, the team said it had rehired more than 30 developers and that the founders planned to fund the project personally for the next 10 years. These are company-published statements, not independently audited staffing or funding figures. Collins-Laflamme also described early access as “our way of earning your trust, not asking for it.”
Why did Hytale return to an older engine?
The reacquisition announcement described two different versions of the game. The older C#/Java engine was PC-only and had been used in the original trailer and most of the game’s blog posts. The newer engine, written in C++, was intended to support multiple platforms, but the studio said it was significantly behind in gameplay and needed extensive refactoring.
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The founders chose the legacy build because they described it as playable. They estimated the newer engine would need about two years before it could be considered for early access; that was the studio’s estimate, not a verified schedule. Returning to the older build did not mean simply pressing an old version back into service: in a November 28, 2025 update, the Hytale Team said it had selected and merged more than 300 GitHub branches into a single working branch.
Is Hytale playable now?
Yes. Hytale entered early access on January 13, 2026. The Hytale Team’s launch announcement said, “The moment has arrived, Hytale is releasing into Early Access today!” The studio also cautioned that the build was incomplete and buggy, so early access marked the start of public play rather than a finished release.
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What was included in Hytale early access?
The January 13, 2026 launch announcement listed these features as available at launch:
- Exploration Mode
- Creative Mode
- Modding support
- Multiplayer support
The same launch-day list said Adventure Mode, official minigames, the complete restored Orbis world generation, and some social features were not yet included. This is a snapshot of the launch announcement, not a verified account of the game’s feature set on October 8, 2026.
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What did the launch cost?
In its January 13, 2026 launch post, the Hytale Team linked to a digital Starter Edition priced at $19.99 USD through its own store. That is the price stated on launch day; it does not establish the current price.
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