‘Minecraft’ rival ‘Hytale’ scrapped after 10 years of work
The team behind Minecraft rival Hytale have announced they’ve scrapped the highly-anticipated game after working on it for 10 years.
Work began on Hytale back in 2015 as a way to bring together a number of popular mini-games that were available to play on developer Hypixel’s Minecraft server. There was a lot of excitement around the new sandbox game, with League Of Legends’ developer Riot Games acquiring Hypixel in 2020 for an undisclosed amount.
More than 2.5million people had signed up for the Hytale beta test, which was originally scheduled to take place in 2021 before being delayed several times. It’s now been announced that development on Hytale has been stopped and Hypixel will be shut down.
“This is not the outcome any of us – at Hypixel or at Riot – wanted. But after years of pushing forward, adapting, and exploring every possible path, it became clear we couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise,” reads a statement from Hypixel.
Sad news for everyone who believed Hytale could become the next big sandbox game. As a Minecraft community, we know how powerful a creative platform can be, and Hytale had that potential. Respect to the devs who gave it their all. This dream deserved better. pic.twitter.com/4URQI4Z7JD
— Minecraft.fr – Communauté de Fans (@FrMinecraft) June 23, 2025
“Game development is brutally hard – especially when you’re trying to build something original that speaks to a creative, passionate community. Over time, as our vision evolved and the genre matured around us, the bar kept rising,” it continued. “It became clear we’d need a lot more time to get it to a place where it could support the ambitious vision for the game.”
Developers 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.”
“It wouldn’t have been the game we set out to make. And it wouldn’t have been the game you deserve.” The statement goes on to say that Hypixel has looked for more investment in the game, but they haven’t been successful. “As we begin winding things down, Riot are ensuring our team is supported with generous severance and resources to help them find what’s next.”
A Difficult Update About Hytale
Hey Everyone,
Today, I shared some incredibly tough news with the Hypixel Studios team: we’re ending development on Hytale and beginning the process of winding down Hypixel Studios over the next few months.This is not the outcome any of us – at…
— Noxy @ Hypixel Studios (@Noxywoxy) June 23, 2025
The news has received a mixed response from fans. “Not sure how you can say ‘we still believe in Hytale’ yet throw 8+ years of work into the trashcan showing and revealing nothing. Hate this was the outcome and that’s unfortunate, but should be much more honest in your post instead of this nothing burger response. A community that very much cared about that game deserves some more in depth explanations,” wrote one fan.
“Sad news for everyone who believed Hytale could become the next big sandbox game. As a Minecraft community, we know how powerful a creative platform can be, and Hytale had that potential. Respect to the devs who gave it their all. This dream deserved better,” said another.
Despite the shuttering of the studio, the Hypixel Minecraft server will remain live.
In other news, Caroline Polachek has released the official title track for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach – check it out here.
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Ali Shutler
NME
