Hytale, Ambitious Minecraft Rival, Cancelled After 7 Years

Hytale, the highly anticipated Minecraft competitor first announced in 2018, has been canceled, and its development studio is shutting down.

Hypixel Studios confirmed that development on the ambitious, Riot Games-backed sandbox game has ended, and the studio is now in the process of winding down operations.

Originally revealed in December 2018 with a trailer that amassed an incredible 61 million views on YouTube, Hytale generated significant excitement from the start. Here’s the original official description from that time:

Hytale merges the freedom of a sandbox with the depth of a roleplaying game, dropping players into a procedurally generated world full of towering structures and deep dungeons packed with rewards. The game supports everything from block-by-block building to scripting and minigame creation, all powered by intuitive, powerful tools.

Hype was further fueled by the development team's background: the founders also created Hypixel, one of the world's most influential Minecraft servers. Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, first invested in the project and later acquired the studio.

Now, however, the Hytale project has come to an end. “This is not the outcome any of us — at Hypixel or at Riot — wanted,” read a statement from co-founder Noxy on the Hytale website. “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.”

So what led to the cancellation? According to Noxy, the technical ambitions for Hytale grew increasingly complex. Even after a complete engine reboot, the team realized Hytale “still wasn’t as far along as it needed to be.”

“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,” Noxy continued.

Alternatives like scaling back the game's scope or delaying it further were ultimately rejected because they “would have meant compromising on what made Hytale special in the first place.” “It wouldn’t have been the game we set out to make,” Noxy explained. “And it wouldn’t have been the game you deserve.”

Riot, for its part, attempted to secure outside investors to rescue the project, but those efforts were unsuccessful. The affected employees are reportedly receiving “generous severance and resources to help them find what’s next.”

News of the cancellation arrives just months after Hypixel shared a spring 2025 development update, showcasing progress made in the first part of the year. That update also revealed a new character previously teased at the end of 2023 and highlighted improvements to the new game engine.