According to IGN, Riot Games has sold the Hytale IP rights back to original co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme months after canceling the Minecraft-inspired sandbox game. The deal comes after Riot acquired Hypixel Studio back in 2020 and development had stagnated. Collins-Laflamme has already rehired more than 30 developers who previously worked on the project and released 16 minutes of “raw and broken” gameplay footage recorded on the original legacy engine. He described this as breaking “the curse once and for all” and confirmed early access is coming soon, with the team sharing more content as development progresses.
The Phoenix Story
This is one of those rare gaming stories that actually gives you hope. How often does a creator get to buy their project BACK from a giant like Riot Games? Basically, we’re watching a passion project get a second chance after corporate ownership nearly killed it. Simon Collins-Laflamme isn’t just talking about revival – he’s putting his money where his mouth is, rehiring the original team and showing actual gameplay within days of the acquisition.
No Smoke and Mirrors
The 16-minute gameplay footage is deliberately unpolished. Collins-Laflamme calls it “raw and broken, but still beautiful” and honestly? That transparency is refreshing. After years of radio silence, showing the game warts and all builds way more trust than another slick trailer. You can see the Minecraft DNA mixed with more RPG elements – procedural worlds, deep dungeons, construction tools. It’s the game that got 61 million views on its 2018 announcement trailer, finally seeing daylight again.
Why This Matters
Look, the gaming industry is full of canceled projects and broken promises. But when a team that built one of the most influential Minecraft servers in the world gets their baby back? That’s worth paying attention to. These developers understand sandbox communities better than almost anyone. The fact that they’re committing to early access rather than another multi-year development cycle shows they’ve learned from past mistakes. They want to build this WITH the community, not in isolation.
The Reality Check
Now, let’s be real – this is still a massive undertaking. Rebuilding a development team and getting a stalled project back on track is no small feat. But the passion is clearly there, and the blog post celebrating that Hytale had been “saved” reads like someone who just rescued their life’s work. The new gameplay footage might be rough, but it proves the game actually exists and plays. After years of waiting, that’s more than enough to reignite the hype for many fans.
