New video game "Hytale" releases, selling two million copies on release day

Samuel Perkins

Lead Reporter

Today, Hytale, a sandbox multiplayer game, released to early access on PC, Max, and Linux. The game can only be downloaded via Hytale's official launcher, not Steam, Epic Games, or any other online game store.

The game was originally developed by Riot Games, who acquired the studio behind Hytale in 2020. After years of delays, and an ambitious engine re-write intended for cross-platform play, Riot officially canceled the game in June of last year.

After the spread of #SaveHytale tag online, the original founder of Hytale, Simon Collins-Laflamme, repurchased the IP and studio from Riot in November of last year. In hopes of getting the game out quickly, the team avoided the re-write, and reverted to an older build of the game used in the original 2018 trailer.

In just under eight weeks, a team of just under 30 re-hired developers, stabilized the game for today's early access launch. They plan to keep this hard work up, and promise to fund at least 10 years of future development.

In today's launch the game comes with three game modes, Exploration Mode, a survival like game mode with procedural terrain generation and basic survival mechanics like crafting, and RPG elements, Creative Mode, a mode with limitless blocks and unique tools for model making and custom map creation, and multiplayer mode, which can be either of the other two modes, but playing with friends or others online.

The game currently costs $19.99 with higher tiers available to help support the game. The version of the game released today was noted as "true early access" it's very unpolished, and their are many known bugs.