After nearly a decade of development, the Hytale project, a sandbox adventure game inspired by Minecraft, will ultimately not see the light of day. Hypixel Studios, the project's creators, have announced that they are ending development and beginning a phase of gradual closure of their activities. The information was confirmed via a press release published on the official website of the studio, which has been collaborating with Riot Games for several years.
Started in 2015, Hytale aimed to extend the experience of the mini-games offered on the famous server Hypixel, until now hosted on Minecraft, by integrating them into a complete game, developed internally. Conceived as a fusion of free construction, exploration, and RPG elements, the project had generated significant interest within the community, especially among fans of Mojang's game. In 2020, publisher Riot Games (creator of League of Legends and Arcane) even invested in Hypixel Studios before acquiring it.
Despite this financial support and nearly 10 years of development, the project was abandoned. In its message, Hypixel explains that it had thought long and hard before making this decision. It states:
The definition of “burning one's wings”
Rather than release a version deemed incomplete or below expectations, Hypixel preferred to terminate the project. The only good news in this press release is that the Hypixel server on Minecraft, independent of the studio, will continue its activities normally.
According to information available on the studio's website, Hypixel had more than a hundred employees. The press release specifies that the teams concerned will receive support, notably in the form of severance pay and assistance in their professional transition. The studio will be gradually shut down over the coming months.
Hypixel also stated that it had considered the possibility of entrusting the project to other investors or buyers, without success. The cessation of funding from Riot Games seems to have weighed heavily in the final decision. Unfortunately, the end of Hytale is not unique. It is part of a series of large-scale video game projects that have failed to come to fruition in recent years, in a context where production deadlines, technological constraints, and player expectations make the development of original games particularly demanding.
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