Hytale, the Minecraft competitor announced in 2018, is canceled and its developer is shutting down.
Hypixel Studios announced that the ambitious, Riot Games-backed Minecraft-style game had ended development, and the studio itself was in the process of winding down.
Hytale was announced in December 2018 with a trailer that has an incredible 61 million views on YouTube. Here’s the official blurb, as it was back then:
Hytale combines the scope of a sandbox with the depth of a roleplaying game, immersing players in a procedurally generated world where teetering towers and deep dungeons promise rich rewards throughout their adventures. Hytale supports everything from block-by-block construction to scripting and minigame creation, delivered using easy to use and powerful tools.
Excitement around Hytale was fueled by the experience of the developers themselves, who co-founded Hypixel, one of the most influential Minecraft servers in the world. Riot Games, maker of League of Legends, invested in the project and eventually bought the studio.
However, the Hytale dream is now over. “This is not the outcome any of us — at Hypixel or at Riot — wanted,” a statement attributed to co-founder Noxy published to the Hytale website reads. “But after years of pushing forward, adapting, and exploring every possible path, it became clear we couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise.”
So, what went wrong? According to Noxy, Hytale’s technical ambitions grew more complex, and even after a reboot of the game engine, the team “found that Hytale still wasn’t as far along as it needed to be.”
“It became clear we’d need a lot more time to get it to a place where it could support the ambitious vision for the game,” Noxy continued.
Options such as reducing scope and pushing the game back were rejected as they “would have meant compromising on what made Hytale special in the first place.” “It wouldn’t have been the game we set out to make,” Noxy explained. “And it wouldn’t have been the game you deserve.”
As for Riot, it tried to find investors to save the project, but it sounds like those efforts failed to go anywhere. The affected staff are getting “generous severance and resources to help them find what’s next.”
Confirmation of the cancelation comes just a few months after Hypixel issued a spring 2025 development update, where the studio revealed some of the progress it had made in the first few months of the year. It even finally revealed a new character that it had teased at the end of 2023. New engine progress was called out, with improvements highlighted.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Six or so years on from an announcement trailer that made it clear people had an appetite for their game’s Minecrafty building and survival shenanigans (it’s got 61 million views to date), Hypixel Studios have announced that Hytale has been cancelled. On top of that, the studio themselves are gearing up for closure.
Hytale’s development kicked off all the way back in 2015, with its devs being the folks behind the huge Hypixel Minecraft server. League of Legends publisher Riot Games bought the studio in 2020, not long after we learned that Hytale would have undead chickens, and not long before the game’s target release year started being pushedback.
Dune: Awakening developer Funcom said it is aware that “players are reporting being cut out of the endgame due to the extremely competitive nature of the Deep Desert.”
In a candid letter from the creative director, Joel Bylos said: “So let me start by stating this unequivocally — we want PvE players to be able to play the endgame and have access to the content of the endgame. Our goal is not to force PvE players to interact with a PvP system that they may have no interest in.
“We still believe in the core concept of the Deep Desert — an endlessly renewing location that resets every week and creates an activity loop for great rewards. The tension of heading out there, head on a swivel, eyes peeled for foes as you enter the most dangerous part of the most dangerous planet in the universe, Our wish was that players would embrace this loop, forming guilds to work together to overcome the bleakness of the Deep Desert. But as Stephen King says, ‘Wish in one hand, sh*t in the other, see which one fills up first.’ One of my hands is overflowing right now and sadly not with wishes.”
Bylos admitted that the “extremely competitive nature” of the Deep Desert was forcing players to engage when they may prefer PvP, and consequently, some areas of the Deep Desert will now be flagged as “Partial Warfare (PvE)” where players can grab rare resources without getting ambushed. The largest spice fields, shipwrecks and Landsraad control points will remain “War of Assassins (PvP)” as “high reward, high risk” areas.
That said, the whole game is balanced around guilds and groups, so if you prefer to be a lone wolf, you can expect it to be “grindy if [you] play solo.”
As for the Orni griefing? “Thopters will always be incredibly important for crossing the desert, but they shouldn’t also be the dominant force in actual battles,” Bylos said, adding that the following will be implemented “shortly”:
Scout Ornithopters with rocket launchers attached will have their speed maneuverability reduced
Rockets fired from Scout Ornithopters will have increased heat generation
Thrusters will provide a max speed bonus regardless of wings, ensuring that thruster equipped scouts will be the fastest vehicles in the game
A new T5 infantry rocket launcher will be added to help improve the dynamics of vehicle/ground combat
Finally, the Landsraad. Bylos defines it as “an umbrella for all endgame activities,” such as dungeons, contracts, and “more specialized delivery tasks.”
“As a system it is an activity driver that is designed to promote the conflict between the factions, internal politics between the guilds, while providing goal thresholds for individuals and groups to work towards getting personal rewards,” the director explained. “And the Landsraad should be doing that for everyone who wants to participate in the elder game, be they PvEer or PvPer. The Landsraad should be giving you things to do every day and every week.
“It’s nothing new, from a design perspective, we’ve seen daily/weekly quest systems in games for a long time. Our approach was to try and frame this system around the greater politics of the Dune universe, by having players engage in activities to earn the votes of the various Landsraad houses.” Consequently, Funcom will shortly be addressing “key flaws” in the Landsraad design, too, including stockpiling, which is currently rewarded but was not designed to be that way.
“Once a live game launches, it becomes a collaborative effort between the developers and the players to make it something amazing,” Bylos concluded. “We appreciate your feedback on what we hope is the beginning of a long journey together.
“Bear with us — our intention is to be clear and open in our communications and to make Dune: Awakening a game that everybody can enjoy.”
We gave Dune: Awakening a Great 8/10 in our review, writing: “Dune: Awakening is an excellent survival MMO that captures Frank Herbet’s sci-fi world incredibly well, mostly to its advantage and occasionally to its detriment. The survival climb from dehydrated peasant to powerful warlord of Arrakis is a joy almost every step of the way, and the story and worldbuilding filled this nerd with absolute joy. There’s still plenty for Awakening to work on though, as its combat never really hits its stride, the endgame is a bit of a chaotic mess not worth the effort.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Carcinisation comes for us all, in time. Today, it is Total War: Warhammer 3‘s turn. The crustacean nation mod adds four legendary lords, heroes, 27 crabulous units, new spells, plus custom tech and building trees for a complete crab-paign experience. It would have been shellfish of me not to share, if not downright altruistic to avoid any and all crab puns.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds removes “unfair” and “stressful” items.
A cornerstone of the Mario Kart experience is, for better or worse, the dreaded Blue Shell.
Seen as a means of keeping the playing field (relatively) level, this item targets the player in first place, and has been the cause of much frustration over the decades—to the point where some people argue it’s actually a disadvantage to be in first position for much of each Mario Kart race.
Update: The Pokémon Company has officially announced its new series for its popular trading card game, Mega Evolution. Its first expansion will be titled “Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution.” More information will be revealed on July 10, 2025.
It’s expected to launch in September this year, while Japan’s equivalents, “Mega Brave” and “Mega Symphonia”, will launch in August. The original story continues below.
Just when you thought the Pokémon TCG had enough going on with Destined Rivals and Black Bolt and White Flare, in comes a brand new series altogether with the Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia sets (Update: Mega Evolution for English markets).
Originally announced at Japan’s Championship tournament, as reported by PokeBeach and later confirmed by The Pokémon Company, the two new sets featuring Mega Lucario ex and Mega Gardevoir ex mark the popular trading card game stepping away from its Scarlet and Violet era.
Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia will release on August 1, 2025, in Japan, and in September for English markets as “Mega Evolution”.
Instead of the long-running Scarlet and Violet block, it will now focus on the Mega Evolutions from the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A game.
Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia will contain 63 cards each, before secret rares are taken into account, and officially kick off the new Mega block of cards. Visually impressive full-art Pokémon and item cards were shown off as well. These include Rare Candy, Night Stretcher, Bulbasaur, Vulpix, and Inteleon.
Both sets have been reported to have a Pokémon Center Mega set, including 60 packs of cards amongst two boxes, a card storage box featuring the respective set’s cover Pokémon, four dividers, a deck box featuring Acerola or Lillie, and card sleeves featuring the same character. This has been priced at 12,800 yen (around $87 today), although the official US pricing hasn’t been revealed yet.
Better quality images of Bulbasaur, Vulpix & Inteleon AR’s from Pokemon Mega Brave & Mega Symphonia pic.twitter.com/VTMqIui97d
There will also be a Premium Trainer Box releasing at 6,350 yen in Japan (around $47), with the official US pricing also currently unknown. This will contain 20 packs, 10 of Mega Brave & Mega Symphonia each, 51 unique cards, a storage box, a Poison/Burn marker, damage counters and case, and a damage storage box.
As also shared by PokeBeach in early June, The Pokémon Company informed tournament organisers at the time that pre-release allocations will be even lower than usual, adding to the TCG’s continued problem of stock shortages.
For when we have more concrete details on preorders for the Pokémon TCG’s English versions of Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia in the US and UK, we’ll update this article so you can try and get a jump on them right away.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
Many libraries offer services where you can experience and even borrow video games. Unfortunately, a 45-year-old Oakland man named Jamal Reed-Obafumi has been arrested after being accused of stealing “approximately $10,000 worth” of Nintendo Switch video games from Marin County Libraries, located in Northern California.
Marin County’s Sheriff’s Detectives arrested Reed-Obafumi last week after he was “connected to a string of at least seven different burglaries of Marin County Libraries”. This took place between April and June 2025 across multiple branches.
Apart from the new free roam mode in Mario Kart World, Nintendo’s latest kart racing outing also brings a new racing mode known as ‘Knockout Tour’. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically Mario Kart’s take on the battle royale genre, where it’s the last kart standing as racers are eliminated after each section of the course.
It’s now almost been one month since the new entry hit the track and it’s got us wondering how much success our community has had so far in this new mode. Have you won a race yet? Have you been on the cusp of greatness but denied by a blue shell at the last minute? Vote in our poll and let us know in the comments below.
We’re seeing serious drops across Final Fantasy cards as more cards enter the market and things start to settle down post-release. That’s a good sign for anyone looking to pick up a few chase cards standalone rather than ripping open more packs than your bank account can handle.
Take Lightning, Army of One, for example. Her Borderless variant was sitting around $90, but has now dropped to around $50. Will it climb again? It’s hard to say, but we’ll keep an eye on it.
The Borderless version of Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is also down to around $50 now, a drop of around $60 from launch week.
Vivi is also still rising in value this week, but it’s still a sharp drop from the $100 market demand last time we looked at him. He can be found for around $55-60 right now, so keep an eye on this one.
Finally, Sephiroth, Fallen Hero’s Extended Art version has crash-landed from around $100 to just $7 since the pre-release day pricing, that’s a big ol’ drop, and a good example as why it’s good to wait and see on how the market will fall post-release of a big set like this.
Magic: The Gathering – Climbers
As we covered recently, Final Fantasy’s cards have bizarrely given some syngizing Doctor Who cards a mega boost in value. For starters, Danny Pink’s ability to draw cards from counters makes him an ideal pickup for your Tidus Commander Deck, but the price has climbed steeply from $4 to over $12 already.
Next up, Barbara Wright might not be the first card you think of when playing Final Fantasy cards, but her Read Ahead ability means she can manipulate Summons from the new set to get to the best effects more quickly. She’s still going for around $4, so she isn’t as pricey as Danny, but she was a dollar not long ago.
Another Tidus synergy, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus is a Phyrexian Horror that, admittedly, wouldn’t look out of place in a Final Fantasy battle. He can double your proliferation of counters, which is ideal for Tidus’ deck. He’s gone from $6 not long ago to over $14 now.
Aside from our Blitzball star, Vivi Ornitier is getting plenty of love from players (I packed one myself, hooray!). One card that works well with him is the Flame of Anor, an instant with a trio of effects you can pick one of. If you control a Wizard (like our adorable friend), then you can pick two. It’s up to around $3, with the foil going for over $4. Not big numbers, sure, but not long ago it was a $2 card and it could climb yet.
If you’ve ever wanted to upset pals in a casual game of Commander, Mesmeric Orb can pair nicely with either Final Fantasy’s The Water Crystal or if someone at your table is playing the Mothman Fallout deck.
The first of those combos will get your friends milling themselves endlessly, while the latter can spread so many Rad counters that it could end up being the shortest game of Commander in history. Mesmeric Orb just hit $24 and could climb higher, a $7 increase week-on-week.
MTG Sealed Sets
Everything else Final Fantasy is pretty hot right now, so if you manage to find anything in stock, it might be worth picking up ASAP to avoid disapointment.
Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay. He’s also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.
Thanks to the lovely folks at TCGPlayer for the info and data that informed this article.
