Hytale, once hailed as the 'next Minecraft' before teetering on the edge of total cancellation, has finally penciled in its early access launch for January 13 next year.

This sandbox RPG has been in the works since 2015. Its developer, Hypixel Studios, originally operated under Hypixel Inc.—the brains behind the famous Minecraft Hypixel server—before being acquired by Riot Games in April 2020. Yet, after a long, painful slog, they announced a complete halt to development on June 24 this year, with the studio facing the chopping block. The reason for this drastic move was that the team admitted they simply couldn't reach the technical bar they’d set for themselves and needed more time to get things right.

On November 18, Hypixel bought back Hytale Studios from Riot Games. They’ve since brought on board about 30 of the original developers along with fresh talent to keep the project breathing. Since the announcement, they’ve been busy uploading various gameplay clips to their official YouTube channel to show us exactly what’s cooking.

With the early access date now confirmed, pre-orders for Hytale kicked off on December 13. Hypixel Studios was refreshingly blunt: "Hytale is truly in early access; it is very incomplete, and you should expect bugs for a while," they stated. "We promise our team is committed to crafting the game we’ve always dreamed of."