League of Legends developer Riot Games have acquired Hypixel Studios, the developers of upcoming sandbox role-playing game Hytale, as the California-based publisher continues to expand its game portfolio, the two companies announced Thursday.
Prior to developing their own game, the founders of Hypixel ran a Minecraft server of the same name, which won a Guinness World Record in July 2017 for being the most popular independent game server in the world with nearly 65,000 users. The Hypixel server was focused on minigames within Minecraft. In December 2018, the Hypixel developers said they'd begin developing their own game, Hytale, which is targeted for release in 2021.
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"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," Newly-appointed Hypixel CEO Aaron 'Noxy' Donaghey said in a press release. "Since our first meetings with Riot leadership long before their initial investment, we've found in Riot a partner with a similar commitment to empowering players. 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."
Hypixel will be the latest addition in a multi-game expansion by Riot Games that started first with the acquisition of Radiant Entertainment, the game studio founded by twins Tom and Tony Cannon, in March 2016. Radiant first developed a city-building game called Stonehearth and prior to the Riot acquisition were working on a fighting game titled Rising Thunder. Originally software engineers, Tom and Tony Cannon co-founded the Evolution Championship Series, the largest fighting game tournament in the world, which now occurs biannually in Las Vegas and Japan.
Since, Riot have released several beta titles: such as Teamfight Tactics, an autobattler based in the League of Legends client; Legends of Runeterra, a virtual card game featuring League of Legends characters; and VALORANT, a first-person tactical shooter in a brand new universe.
In late 2019, Riot also announced Riot Forge, a publishing arm of the company set to work with third-party developers to create single-player games using League of Legends intellectual property. In their 10-year anniversary, the company said it was working on a fighting game with the Radiant Entertainment staff, codenamed "Project L." Following that event, other reports emerged that the game was working on a massively multiplayer online game also.
Riot served as an advisor to and an angel investor in Hypixel when the studio started developing Hytale. With the acquisition, Hypixel will establish a new office in Northern Ireland.