Rescued "Minecraft challenger" Hytale finally shows off gameplay, and it has the building blocks of something great

Hytale is an anomaly by modern industry standards. The Minecraft rival, and with it Hypixel Studios, was snapped up by League of Legends developer Riot Games back in 2020. After years of troubled development, Riot announced in June this year that it was cancelling Hytale, and would begin winding down Hypixel. At this point, Hytale was dead; no game comes back from that. Except, it has. After months of posturing, an unprecedented deal to save Hytale between Riot and Hypixel's co-founder, Simon Collins-Laflamme, was announced earlier this week. Now, as we hurtle towards early access, the rejuvenated Hypixel's shared a big ol' slice of gameplay so we know exactly what to expect.

Hytale is a bold attempt to take the building blocks of Minecraft (Hypixel started life as some of the best Minecraft servers) and fuse them with the expansive experience building and social elements found in the likes of Roblox and Garry's Mod. Considering its ambition, it's no wonder it sought what was initially external funding from Riot among other firms, prior to the company's eventual acquisition of the self-styled "Minecraft challenger." As we can easily surmise from the years of silence since, as well as the current state of Hytale, it ended up in the dreaded development hell, with little forward movement under Riot's stewardship.

Keen to get a playable version of the game into players' hands as soon as possible, Hypixel is pushing to get Hytale into early access as soon as possible, with a release date announcement expected in the coming days. As detailed in a recent Hytale blog post, the studio has thrown out the cross-platform engine it had been working on, returning to the legacy one that the game was originally built in; don't worry, cross-platform will still arrive sometime down the line. Considering the litany of missing features, rough edges, and bugs present in the current iteration of Hytale, Hypixel anticipates that early access will last "at least a few years."

Despite Collins-Laflamme branding the new showcase "unfinished, raw footage," with a list of quibbles almost as long as the 16-minute video, Hytale is already looking gorgeous. It couldn't wear its influences on its blocky sleeves more proudly if it tried, and I'm keen to see how players utilize its toolset to craft their own experiences. Collins-Laflamme says "Hytale will take 0% from modders and server owners for at least the first two years," so there's plenty of incentive to get in early doors.

In an era of gaming that's rapidly being defined by layoffs and shutterings, to see one flicker of flame on this torrid path has reminded me what hope feels like. With a passionate team and plenty of fan support behind it, I'm rooting for Hytale to finally reach the light at the end of its own tunnel.