Riot Games acquires Hypixel Studios, developer of Hytale

Riot Games just announced its acquisition of Hypixel Studios. The studio was originally founded in 2018 with support from an advisory group of angel investors, Riot Games included. Since then, Hypixel Studios has been hard at work on developing Hytale, a community-powered block game that combines the creativity of a sandbox environment with the depth of a roleplaying game.

A change for the best

The acquisition gives Hypizel Studios access to Riot Games’ experience in developing and publishing player-focused games. Hytale accrued more than 2.5 million sign-ups for its beta and its YouTubeTrailer has millions of views. As of November 2019, Hypixel Studios expects to make Hytale available to the public by 2021.

Words from the big dogs

Brian Cho, Head of Corporate and Business at Riot Games, had this to say: “Our investment criteria is ultimately pretty simply: we look for authentic game makers striving to improve player experience. When we led the investment in the Hypixel Studios team two years ago, we saw a group deeply immersed in existing block games who believed that the genre could better serve its community. This acquisition will bring our collaborative efforts with Noxy and the Hypixel team even closer together, and we can’t wait to see how their work continues to evolve.”

Simon Collins’Laflamme, Co-founder of Hypixel Studios had additional things to say: “Riot’s been an important partner from the start and this is a natural step in our relationship. It’ll help the studio take another leap forward in our journey from mod team to professional developers, and allows the team to realize our vision for Hytale.”

With regard to corporate changes, it doesn’t look like Hypixel Studios will make any changes. They plan to establish a permanent office in Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The new office should act as a base for back-office functions and quality assurance. Hypixel Studios is now hiring 20 new positions in these areas and expects to find further growth opportunities as Hytale continues its development.

Ryan Goodrich

Ryan has been writing since long before he could even write. He's written resumes, software user guides, consumer electronic reviews, and myriad web content spanning a variety of industries. But now he's writing about video games, which is much more interesting.

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