Riot Games has completed their acquisition of the development studio Hypixel Studios. The League of Legends developers took to their blog earlier today to announce the completion of the acquisition of the Northern Ireland-based development studio.
“Riot Games, the game developer and publisher best known for League of Legends, today completed its acquisition of Hypixel Studios,” Riot wrote via their website. “Founded in 2018 with support from an advisory group of angel investors, including Riot Games, Hypixel Studios is currently developing Hytale, a community-powered block game that combines the scope of a creative sandbox with the depth of a roleplaying game.”
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
This acquisition is a culmination of a large amount of history between the two developers. Riot Games president Dylan Jadeja discusses this history, stating that they’ve “known the team behind Hypixel Studios for several years, and from the start they’ve been the kind of visionaries that we aspire to support.” Jadeja applauds the team’s commitment to delivering new and exciting experiences to players, as well as discussing how much of an honor it’s been to be their partners for the last 18 months.
If you haven’t heard of Hypixel Studios, they’re the developers behind the upcoming title Hytale, an open-world survival game reminiscent of Minecraft with a heavier focus on combat and fantasy. Hytale fosters community servers with a myriad of minigames, extensive modding, heavy customization, and even some dungeon elements.
Hytale has received a great amount of attention since its announcement in mid-December of 2018. Currently, the trailer sits just shy of 56,000,000 views, a number which is sure to climb given the huge spotlight being shined on the company because of this acquisition.
“We’ve been blown away by players’ response to Hytale, and Riot is the right partner to help us deliver a game that can live up to players’ expectations,” Hypixel’s CEO Aaron Donaghey stated. “As development kicks into high gear, we’ll benefit from Riot’s resources, expertise, and experience while maintaining the operational independence that has enabled our success so far.”
This acquisition also helps to broaden Riot’s sphere of influence, as the game will now obviously bear the Riot name as well as Hypixel’s. For more than a decade Riot was often joked about for having only one game with League of Legends, which also would lend to critique as players wondered how the company wasn’t able to keep the servers or client flawless with their vast resources and single game. Now with Legends of Runeterra and Valorant hitting the market, that meme seems to be dying out, and broadening the title even further with Hytale is sure to help to expand their catalog as well.
