Minecraft has paved the way for countless innovative games in the sandbox genre, and has inspired thousands of developers to create unique projects of their own. One Minecraft-inspired game has had a long and rocky journey, but by some sort of divine gaming miracle, is finally set for release this week.
The long-awaited Minecraft-inspired indie RPG Hytale is set to release in Early Access on January 13 (via Hytale.com) after being canceled and then revived again by its original developers at Hypixel Studios. Hytale is a standalone open-world sandbox game with fantasy RPG element from the developers behind the famous Hypixel Minecraft server.
Hypixel Studios (and therefore Hytale itself) was bought out by Riot Games back in 2020, but ultimately ended up getting canceled in 2025 after years of development woes. However, the original Hypixel founders were able to cut a deal with Riot "to return to the legacy engine and original vision" of the game, giving fans the ability to actually play Hytale instead of seeing it die in obscurity.
While Hytale players may not be getting the massive scale that was once promised when the game was under Riot's leadership, the current version still...
