Riot Games has sold Hytale back to its original co-founder, who has promised to restore it back to the original vision meant for the game. It's been five months since Riot Games cancelled the project, but 30 former developers have been brought back to continue the project, which the co-founders have committed to supporting for the next 10 years.
Simon Collins-Laflamme shared an update on the Hytale website, in which he thanked Riot Games. You can also read his full statement on X.
In case you missed it, Hytale (a sandbox RPG similar to Minecraft but with a stunning art style) was originally conceived in 2018 and quickly developed a strong following after a viral trailer (below). But Riot games acquired Hytale maker's studio, Hypixel Studios back in 2020, and cancelled the project in June 2025 after a long period of failed redevelopment.
It's a win for indie devs, and especially for Collins-Laflamme, who said he believes in the project so much he would put down $25 million of his own money to see it resurrected. While it's not clear how much he ended up paying, he has ended up seeing his dream realised.
Riot Games confirmed they had multiple offers in the below post on X, and putting the community at the centre of the decision.
New gameplay has also been revealed, with one YouTube comment stating "it's funny how Simon has released more footage in 48 hours than in the last five years". See one of the clips below.
Fans of the game on Reddit are discussing how wild the whole situation has been. "This has to be the first ever instance of a game going from indie to AAA then back to indie," one comment reads. They are delighted it has happened, but have some reseravations. "time to pray for a early release," one fan comments, but continues "let ppl give feedback its been almost 5+ years i think?"
"On one hand I'm kind of annoyed that the idiot even sold it in the first place, because the game looked REALLY promising. And on the other... I'm happy it's back in development..." says another Redditor.
Some are skeptical: "Huh... I mean. Look these are a lot of words we've heard before, but they're if they stick to their commitment of no investors or publishers and they actually deliver on this... this is huge."
While others just joyful. "What a time to be alive," someone pronounces.
It's always brilliant to see a project come through for an indie dev team, and we'll be watching closely to see how the game shapes up.
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