Hytale’s Resurrection is Being Sabotaged by Minecraft Fans

Early Access will have three price tiers: $19.99, $34.99, and $69.99.

Development prioritizes community support, modding, and creator revenue programs.

Voxel Problem

After a few months of behind the scenes negotiating, Hytale’s original creator, Simon Collins-Laflamme officially brought the cancelled game back to life last week. He’s since been rolling out a steady stream of updates, but there’s a contingent of gamers who aren’t happy to see Hytale back.

A vocal subset of Minecraft fans are up in arms that the former “Minecraft killer” is somehow a legitimate threat to the voxel-based sandbox game that technically spawned it; Hytale started as a Minecraft mod but is built on its own engine, meaning there’s no need to download third-party software for Hytale mods (as is the case with Minecraft).

“Minecraft is one of the greatest games of all time, it has perfected many designs that no one appreciates,” Collins-LaFlamme said in a recent post on X, in relation to comparisons.

“Hytale is going in a very, very different path; we are more going into adventure aspects as a core game (with modding in mind). We will not have things like Redstone for example. Magic will be part of Hytale in many aspects, very much a fantasy feeling.”

NSFW Sabotage

People arguing on the internet about video games is nothing new, and if it was just angry rants by Minecraft fans on social media it would be easy to dismiss. However, some of these gamers have taken their desire to see Hytale fail a step further, by tagging inappropriate content on Steam as “Hytale.”

Anyone who tries to search for the game on that platform will be greeted with the likes of Sex With Hitler (and its sequel!), as well as the non-NSFW Minigame Madness; these appear to have been picked to receive the Hytale tag at random.

Congratulations on the free publicity, Minigame Madness.

Although it’s debatable just how much harm this will do Hytale, Steam’s store tags have been misused multiple times before. In 2023, Hogwarts Legacy received “WWII” and “Psychological Horror” tags, among others, in protest of author JK Rowling’s vocal opinions against trans people.

Last year, scammers briefly got away with spoofing Helldivers 2 and PalWorld on Steam to try and fool gamers into buying “discount” copies of those games (only to find it was a different game once loaded). This sort of behavior also ties into asset-flip games that are churned out to make a quick sale based on a better-known title, but Hytale looks to be avoiding this kind of thing at the moment.

Early Access Pricing

• Meanwhile, Collins-LaFlamme and his team at the also-resurrected Hypixel Studios (this was also shut down by
• Riot Games

) have been rolling out regular news on the state of Hytale, alongside plans for future content and pricing. At the moment, Hytale is slated for an Early Access release although an actual date is still to be determined.

The team has revealed pricing, though: the Standard version will enter Early Access at $19.99, the Supporter version at $34.99 and the Cursebreaker at $69.99. The additional tiers include cosmetics, with extra details still to come. They’re primarily designed as a way for the community to help support Hytale’s continued development, which Collins-LaFlamme noted in an accompanying X post.

“I’m pricing Hytale as aggressively low as possible. I’m taking on a considerable personal risk after repurchasing the game and getting it ready for early access for a growing team of now 50 talented individuals. I said I was all in, and I am delivering on that promise.”

“I want as many players as possible to jump in. Times are tough in the current economy for a lot of you, and I want everyone to have a fair chance to be part of what comes next.”

Hytale Respects Its Community

As a game that started life as a community mod for Minecraft, it makes sense that a continued focus on the players who helped shape it would be a viable way to attain success. Hypixel Studios is doing this via its approach to mod support, which was detailed in an official site blog post by the game’s Technical Director Kevin Carstens.

“We’re building Hytale with modding at its core. Most of what you see in the game can be changed, extended, or removed entirely. Blocks, Items, NPCs, World Generation, UIs, systems, and behaviours are all driven by data and code that you can influence.”

“We decided not to hide valuable features just because they’re not up to our current standards. If something is useful to you, we’ll try to make it available and iterate on it in public. You are absolutely encouraged to hold us accountable for that.”

Carston’s comments follow a recent video giving a peek at the in-game editor, which has led to gamers commenting themselves that they can’t believe Hytale looks so good and robust for something routinely called “unfinished.”

The Hypixel Studios team has also been following up on community members who either stuck around all this time to support Hytale the best they could, or have unfortunately passed away but still left an indelible mark on the community. In the case of the latter, a Hytale YouTuber known as Technoblade passed away from cancer in 2022, which Hypixel commemorated with a book of condolences signed by themselves and players, and gifted to his family.

Technoblade as he appeared in-game.

Now Collins-LaFlamme has opened up discussion with the Hytale community for ideas on how to commemorate Technoblade in Hytale itself, with suggestions so far including a statue and special sword.

Collins-LaFlamme also announced an upcoming Support-A-Creator revenue share program for YouTubers and modders, with full details to follow soon. “Your followers will be able to use your code, so you receive a percentage of the sales of Hytale. The percentage will be low to begin with, but as we become more comfortable and recoup the acquisition costs, we will increase the percentage,” Collins-LaFlamme said on X.

“We have given out about $3,000,000 to our creators so far through our test program on Hypixel, involving a dozen creators,” he added.

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