While he was eagerly awaited by the community, especially with his ambition and the help provided by Riot since the studio’s acquisition, Hytale will never see the day. An announcement that unfortunately does not surprise many people, since communication about “Minecraft-like” had been at a standstill for many months, with only rare publications on the progress of development.
An ambitious project that has become too complex to carry out
After years of waiting and numerous postpones, Riot Games made a radical decision : put an end to the development of Hytale. Noxy, the CEO of Hypixel Studios, formalized this sad news, explaining:
We stop the development of Hytale and start the process of closing of Hypixel Studios in the coming months. Despite a major reboot of the game engine, our technical ambitions had become too complex. The project did not progress quickly enough, making clear that we would need much more time to fully achieve our vision.
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
This painful choice comes after Riot Games has considered several solutions, such as reducing the scope of the project or extending production times. But according to the studio, it would have involved giving up what made the singularity of Hytalethus betraying fans’ expectations.
150 jobs affected by the closure
The stopping of the project is unfortunately accompanied by Significant layoffs within Hypixel Studios. Amanda Goodall, a specialized journalist, indicates via Linkedin that Riot Games would prepare to separate from nearly 150 employees. Despite this difficult situation, Riot Games ensures that a significant support will be given to the employees concerned, in particular via generous allowances and resources to help them rebound professionally.
The broken dream of a passionate community
Announced with great fanfare in 2015, with a first sensational trailer in 2018, then acquired by Riot Games in 2020, Hytale Promise a rich fantasy universe, generated procedurally, incorporating innovative RPG mechanics, as well as a large freedom left to players via systems for creating personalized servers and assets.
The community, strong and committed, impatiently awaited this title which wanted to be an innovative alternative to Minecraft. Unfortunately, this disproportionate ambition was right for the project. The developers confirm that, despite their efforts, they have never managed to fully materialize their vision:
Each option envisaged involved compromises. We could never have created the game that we had imagined at the start, nor the one that the community deserved.
Hypixel, however, specifies that The closure of Hypixel Studios does not affect the famous Minecraft “Hypixel” serverwhich will continue to operate normally.
An uncertain future for the creative sandbox genre
This closure poses questions about the future of Games of Sandbox type on a large scale. Riot Games has not specified whether other similar projects could be considered in the future. However, this cancellation shows the real difficulty in innovating in a market where technical expectations and constraints are constantly increasing. The Hypixel Studios teams say they are deeply grateful to their community:
Your energy, creativity and support have allowed us to do the best job of our lives. Even if we will not be those who will bring this game to the world, we still believe firmly in that it represented.
This brutal end recalls the fragility of ambitious projects, but also the crucial importance of realistic management of resources in the video game industry.
