League of Legends creator Riot Games bought the studio behind ‘Minecraft clone’ Hytale this week, before the acquisition they had already invested millions in the studio. So Riot Games will release many games in the coming years.
The multiplayer game with RPG elements, minigames, building elements, dungeon exploration and more is something that many Minecraft fans can’t wait for. This is clear because more than 2 million beta registrations have already been made.
Hytale was announced in 2018 and is created by Hypixel Studios, the game company behind the most popular Minecraft server Hypixel. When Minecraft made it impossible for Hypixel to perform microtransactions on the Minecraft server in 2014, the idea for a proprietary game came about.
We’re excited to welcome @Hypixel Studios to Riot Games. We look forward to supporting the @Hytale team during their development process and beyond. Learn more: https://t.co/PMk6RMRvSa pic.twitter.com/0XjW096TeT
— Riot Games (@riotgames) April 16, 2020
Riot Games has mainly focused on the still popular League of Legends (with 112 million active players every month), from the end of 2019 they have also focused on League of Legends spin-offs and of course Valorant!
It is not known how much money Riot paid for Hypixel Studios, it will probably not be the same amount that Microsoft had left for Minecraft creator Mojang in 2014 ($ 2.5 billion). However, this investment will allow one to open in Northern Ireland in addition to the studio in Quebec.
As it looks now, Hytale’s beta will be available in 2021, later that year the game should be playable for everyone.