Developer Hypixel Studios has announced that its highly-anticipated sandbox RPG, Hytale, will be coming out as an Early Access game tomorrow. Leading up to this, studio founder Simon Collins-Laflamme has confirmed that more than 1 million players have bought access to the title, and issued a warning that this might lead to server issues when trying to download the game. He has advised players to instead download the launcher in advance to avoid potential launch-day problems.
In another post, Collins-Laflamme also revealed that pre-orders for Hytale have done well enough for the studio to have officially secured development costs for the next two years. He noted that these pre-purchase figures, along with his own commitment to continue working on the title means that Hytale has a strong future ahead of it.
“Pleased to announce that we have officially secured the next two years of development costs through pre-purchases. Combined with my personal commitment of ten years, we are looking very strong for the future,” he wrote on social media. “Thank you all for the support. Hytale is saved. We are almost home.”
The development of Hytale has been an interesting journey. Having originally begun as a Minecraft multiplayer server named Hypixel, the project would pick up a life of its own with Hypixel Studios deciding to work on the sandbox RPG of its dreams. Riot Games of League of Legends and Valorant fame would eventually purchase the studio in 2020.
“We’ve been blown away by players’ response to Hytale, and Riot is the right partner to help us deliver a game that can live up to players’ expectations,” said Hypixel Studios’ CEO at the time Aaron Donaghey. “Since our first meetings with Riot leadership long before their initial investment, we’ve found in Riot a partner with a similar commitment to empowering players. As development kicks into high gear, we’ll benefit from Riot’s resources, expertise, and experience while maintaining the operational independence that has enabled our success so far.”
While development continued, the project would eventually get cancelled in June 2025. This would lead to Collins-Laflamme buying the Hytale IP off Riot Games to then resume development.
If you are interested in checking out Hytale for yourself, Hypixel recommends a PC running on at least an Intel Core i5-7500 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU and 8 GB of RAM. For graphics, if you’re using an integrated GPU, the developer recommends either Intel UHD Graphics 620, or AMD Radeon Vega 6. Those with discrete GPUs should have either an Nvidia GTX 900 series card, an AMD Radeon 400 series card, or an Intel Arc A-series card. Supported operating systems are Windows 11, Windows 10 x64, Linux x64 running on kernel version 6.15 or higher, or Mac running on at least the Apple M1 chip and macOS version Tahoe or higher. The listed hardware is expected to run Hytale at 1080p and 30 FPS with the view distance set to 192.
For 1080 and 60 FPS with the higher view distance of 384, the studio recommends either an Intel Core i5-10400, an AMD Ryzen 5 3600, or an Apple M2 if you’re using a Mac, along with 16 GB RAM. Integrated GPUs supported are Intel Iris Xe Graphics and AMD Radeon 660M for Windows and Linux. Recommended discrete graphics cards are the same as the minimum requirements.
