Minecraft rival Hytale skips Steam at launch to dodge negative reviews, and its developer says it "might never need" Valve's store

Upcoming Minecraft challenger Hytale has reaffirmed that it won't initially launch on Steam when it arrives in early access in January. After its original creator revived the canceled project following its cancellation at the hand of Riot Games, it set its sights on a speedy early access release to get it in players' hands early, rather than wallow in development purgatory. Hypixel Studios had previously voiced how it wanted to use its own launcher rather than Steam, and now in a new Q&A post, it's explained its reasoning. Not only does the studio not see Valve's platform as a "necessity," it also shares concerns about "overindexing on negative reviews."

Given its initial popularity as one of the best Minecraft servers, to the potential that came with Riot's deep pockets and expertise, there's already plenty of hype and anticipation for Hytale. However, with development stalling at Riot, the publisher ultimately scrapped the game, and that looked to be the end of that. However, it was recently purchased from the League of Legends studio by its original creator, Simon Collins-Laflamme, who has now reassembled a team under the banner of Hypixel Studios. In a complete 180 compared to Riot, it wants to throw the sandbox game out into the wild in an early, rough state and let its community shape its development more closely. Collins-Laflamme has already promised an "aggressively low" price point, given its state, and initially aimed to launch the game this year - however, some setbacks have seen the Hytale release date pushed to January 2026.

When it does finally become playable, it won't be coming to Steam. Just like Minecraft, it'll dodge Valve's storefront, at least to begin with. In a new Q&A post, Hytale's executive director, Patrick 'Lyall' Derbic, reveals why it'll be opting for its own launcher instead.

"We want to spend our time in Early Access working with the community and improving the game, rather than overindexing on negative reviews from players that aren't as well-informed yet about what we are doing," he writes. "Steam is a great marketing tool but one that we might never need. This doesn't mean we will never be on Steam - just that we do not see the necessity of it yet."

So, Hypixel isn't totally ruling out a Steam release in the future, but it's not heading there if it doesn't feel like it needs to. That means if you want to play Hytale in early access, you'll need to do it through the game's own launcher, which Hypixel hasn't yet shown off. The Q&A also confirms that PC will be the only way to play in early access, with Mac and Linux still "TBD" and a console release planned to arrive "at a later stage."

The post also confirms that the more expensive editions of Hytale will only have their content available during early access. Aside from cosmetics, which will roll over, everything else these editions offer will be removed ahead of its full release.

On the topic of cosmetics, Lyall says that "when it comes to monetization, we will never add P2W [pay-to-win] options. Official cosmetics will stay fair and balanced, and we will keep adding free cosmetics over time." He adds that "modders can still create visual mods such as furniture, pets, hats, and avatar cosmetics," but asks modders not to "override" any official cosmetics that Hytale puts out.

Lyall also reaffirms Hypixel's commitment to not take a cut from the monetized work of community modders or server creators for the first two years of the game's life, which is great to see.

A couple of key mechanics are mentioned in the Q&A, but it sounds like they won't be immediately playable. Pets and tamable animals are "planned for the game" but are not ready yet, proximity chat is "close" to being done but won't be immediately available in early access, and the devs are "working on an interesting design" for fishing, but that will also be arriving later down the line. There's a lot to be done, but that's why Hypixel is keen to get it out into the wild as quickly as possible - even if the biggest PC platform isn't part of their launch plans.