We love games at Riot. And not just League of Legends. We love all types of games across all different genres. Games like Terraria and Minecraft are some of the most beloved games amongst Rioters, and our internal research has shown that’s the case within our community of players too.

And we believe it all starts with the community. If you look at the biggest and most successful games in our recent history, you’ll find that it’s not about who has the best graphics, game design, or technology, it’s about the passionate community of players that make it possible for developers to support and expand the game for years on end.

The story of Hypixel Studios isn’t too different from the Riot Games origin story. When we led the investment in the Hypixel Studios two years ago, we saw not only a passionate team of modders deeply immersed in existing block games, but who believed that the genre could better serve its community. Our investment and acquisition criteria was and is ultimately pretty simple: we look for authentic game makers striving to improve player experience. We loved the approach that the Hypixel server founders, Simon and Philippe, took to bootstrap the Hypixel server to 18M uniques. They’ve been flying under the radar for the last seven years building Minecraft’s biggest community of mini-games and building experiences that delighted millions. To our surprise, they accomplished all this as a fully distributed team, working across twenty different countries.

Most importantly, we were impressed by how the Hytale project lead, Noxy and the team expanded on that vision with Hytale, the spiritual successor to Hypixel server and a game that the block building gamer community have been clamoring for. The team’s dream is to push the blockgame genre forward in a significant way, not just as a game but also as a user generated content sandbox that will empower the player community. That type of ambition is what made us jump at the opportunity to work with the Hypixel Studios team.

I’m happy to announce that we’ve fully acquired Hypixel Studios and that I’ll be joining the board along with Mark, Alan, Sean, and Noxy. The founders Simon and Philippe will continue to operate and run the original Hypixel Server as an independent entity, while Noxy and the Hypixel Studios team will be fully dedicated to shipping Hytale as a subsidiary of Riot Games. We mutually opted for the startup model to start, because this is a special enough team and project that can benefit from keeping their independence, globally distributed game development approach, and their relentless focus to deliver on the player experience in the genre in which they have deep subject matter expertise.

We at Riot Games feel grateful to have been the original investors in Hypixel Studios and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Noxy, now CEO of Hypixel Studios, and the team on this journey. Please join us in welcoming the Hypixel Studios team to Riot Games!



