'I have no regrets saving Hytale,' says co-founder who purchased the game from Riot and released it just two months later: 'It's been the most challenging but rewarding experience of my life'

Hytale character with brown hair and wearing a green robe standing in front of their garden of carrots.

Today marks one week since the early access release of Hytale, the Minecraft-like that was famously rescued from oblivion earlier this year by original co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme. By all appearances it's been a very successful rebirth, and Collins-Laflamme underscored that feeling with a message on X saying he has "no regrets" about resurrecting the game.

It was a sticky situation for a while: Riot's decision to cancel Hytale and close Hypixel Studios after seven years of work (and for reasons that will probably never be entirely clear) seemed a definitive end to the story, but a seemingly faint hope that someone would step in to save the day became reality when Collins-Laflamme struck a deal to reacquire the whole thing in November 2025. The reborn studio managed to get the game out the door just two months later, and while it's still notably very early access, it's also pretty good.