What Is Hytale? An Ambitious Sandbox Game That Could Be the Successor to Minecraft

Hytale was once considered an ambitious project that failed and was even canceled. However, after more than a decade of tumultuous development, this sandbox game has finally been officially released in the form of early access. Although this early version is far from the grand promises that were made since it was first announced in 2018, Hypixel Studios assures that Hytale is not truly over.

The game now comes with a more simplified scale, lacking several major features like a campaign-based adventure mode. Nevertheless, the developers are committed to continuously developing Hytale for many years to come with community support.

What Is Hytale?

Hytale is a sandbox builder game focused on creativity and modding, developed by Hypixel Studios—a team widely known for popular Minecraft servers and minigames. In its early access version, Hytale features two main modes:

• Exploration Mode, which embraces the survival sandbox concept
• Creative Mode, which allows players to build and modify worlds and game mechanics

At this stage, the Hytale gameplay experience still feels similar to Minecraft. However, from the beginning, Hytale’s vision was actually much more ambitious: an open-world with factions, missions, strategic PvP, and a full story campaign. Unfortunately, various development hurdles have prevented that vision from being fully realized.

Was Hytale Ever Canceled?

Yes, Hytale was indeed canceled at one point. Development started in 2015 and expanded until Riot Games acquired Hypixel Studios in 2020. The attempt to migrate the game to a new engine in 2021 complicated the development process due to the accumulation of features and shifts in design direction.

In July 2025, Riot officially halted this project. However, the founder of Hypixel, Simon Collins-Laflamme, took a bold step by buying back the rights to Hytale from Riot. He then reformed the core development team and decided to release the game as quickly as possible in early access form, even though many important features were not yet available.

Since then, Hypixel Studios has independently published Hytale.

Price and How to Buy Hytale

Currently, Hytale can only be purchased through the official site and played via a special launcher. There are three editions available:

• Standard – US$11.34
• Supporter – US$19.86
• Cursebreaker – US$39.71

The Standard edition is sufficient to play all game content. The other two editions only add cosmetic items, and players can still upgrade their edition later during the early access period.

Is Hytale Available on Steam?

Not yet. Hytale is not available on Steam, consoles, or mobile devices. Hypixel mentioned that Steam currently does not support several important modding features used in Hytale. While there is a possibility of collaboration with Valve in the future, there is no certainty whether this game will appear on other platforms.

Hytale Content During Early Access

Hytale’s release is considered unique because it is categorized as “very early early access”. The game was released just a few months after being bought back from Riot, with the main goal of gathering player feedback.

Features currently available:

• Creative Mode
• Exploration Mode
• Modding system

Features planned to be added later:

• Mission-based Adventure Mode
• Minigames

Collins-Laflamme stated that Hytale will be supported for at least 10 years. The development strategy is to provide many small updates regularly, rather than waiting for a major update over a long time.

Exploration and Creative Modes in Hytale

Exploration Mode serves as a temporary replacement for the adventure mode. Here, players can fight, explore, farm, build, collect loot, and play with friends. In the future, this mode is planned to be expanded with dungeons, epic bosses, and other PvE content.

Meanwhile, Creative Mode is one of Hytale’s main strengths. Available features include:

• Player character model modifier
• Editor and prefab browser for buildings and entities
• Quick placement tools for testing
• Terrain brushes for shaping the world
• Basic machinima tools for cinematic shots

In fact, the community has already managed to create a side-scrolling game and run classic games like Doom within Hytale, proving the flexibility of its modding system.

The Future of Hytale

Although it is not the dream version that was once promised, Hytale is now back alive. With a strong sandbox foundation and community support, this game still has a great chance to evolve into something unique in the builder genre. Its journey is still long, but for fans of creativity and modding, Hytale remains a project worth watching.