Between "Legends of Runeterra," "Teamfight Tactics," and "Valorant," Riot Games has been on a roll lately. Last year it was the infinitely popular "League of Legends" with one game, but now it has five, most of them in different genres. And as of today, we can add the blocky, Minecraft-adjacent "Hytale" to that list.

Hypixel Studios, formerly a group of Minecraft modders but gobbled up by Riot; announced in late 2018 and backed by angel investors, including LoL developers, Hytale is an ambitious co-op fantasy RPG, collection of mini-games, as well as a sandbox where you simply build your own world and run amok, with many similarities to Minecraft, but with the self-expressive power of the sandbox multiplied by eleven.

Hypixel now has more resources and is hiring for 20 new positions in a new permanent office in Northern Ireland.

"We will continue to operate as before, but with Riot as the parent company, we will have access to their expertise and resources," co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme assured the community.

"This means a bigger budget for Hytale, more security for our team, and advisory support from a company that knows how to launch and run a successful, long-term game.

In other words, even though the studio is now under the Riot umbrella, it still seems to be an independent studio. The acquisition also does not affect the Hypixel Minecraft server or Hypixel Inc, which continues to oversee Minecraft mods Collins-Laflamme is stepping down as CEO.

This is not Riot's first acquisition; in 2016 it bought Radiant Entertainment, developer of Stonehearth and Rising Thunder, although Stonehearth was eventually released in 2018, it did not have some of the features promised in the Kickstarter, and Rising Thunder was unfortunately cancelled.

Thus, there is good reason to be nervous about the Riot acquisition, but Hypixel is trying to put minds at ease with FAQs that clarify a few things. For example, there is still some separation between Riot and Hypixel, and Hytale developers will continue to be Hypixel employees, not Riot employees. The studios will also function independently of each other, so Riot developers will work on Hytale and Hypixel developers will not jump into LoL.

However, it remains to be seen how the acquisition will affect the scope and schedule of the game. However, the additional resources from Riot mean that Hypixel can be even more ambitious. The priority remains shipping games, and they are mindful of "scope creep."