I’ve seen a lot of discourse online about whether or not the full release of Hytale is a death knell for Minecraft. A few weeks ago I would have said it absolutely was not. This week, I’m no longer as certain.
So, What Changed?
Åsa Bredin’s replacement was a small to mid-size factor that went toward changing my mind. Åsa was replaced by Kayleen Walters. Kayleen is also still the head of franchise development at Microsoft Gaming. This might not seem like a big deal to the uninitiated, but…Minecraft-adjacent games have so far sucked pretty hard. I wish they would stop trying so hard to make “fetch” happen and just focus on their core game. Make another type of game if you want, but stop trying to tack other games into the Minecraft universe. It just…doesn’t seem to really work.
Another, much more significant (imo) factor, was the appointment of Katie Scott as the new Head of Minecraft Vanilla. Katie is a microtransaction specialist. She has been behind many monetization initiatives for other games. While this doesn’t mean for certain that Minecraft is going to become an inescapable hellscape of microtransactions, it doesn’t not mean that either. And when death (microtransactions) is on the line, never go in against a Sicilian (a microtransaction specialist). <– Did I run that far enough into the ground? No?
How about now?
Moving on…
Anyway, how will Scott’s appointment impact Agnes, the current head? This worries me more than a little, because I know that Agnes actually plays and enjoys the game she heads. I mean, at this point, are we just trading passion for profits? Because, not gonna lie, that sounds like a very Microsoft thing to do. It also makes me wonder if this is why the latest update is kinda trash. Like, they literally just re-textured some baby animals. They’re cute, but that’s a pretty garbage update.
You were probably beginning to wonder if I was even going to talk about Hytale. Of course I am. Here’s the thing – Hytale is really fun. Even in its current pre-release state, even with its little bugs and unfinished areas – it’s FUN. It’s more challenging, more immersive, and more customizably creative than Minecraft by kind of a long shot. There is a significantly larger block palette for one. There are roof tiles, window blocks, and VERTICAL SLABS (this is huuuuuge if you’re a Minecrafter, since for some reason the devs there seem allergic to the idea of these – at least until Jens had actually tried out Hytale himself). You can build some really incredible stuff in Hytale right off the bat. The texturing on things is a little more streamlined as well (although this is totally subjective, I think).
The combat mechanisms seem smooth, but the fights are a little more challenging. Mobs which years of Minecrafting have taught you should be passive unless provoked are anything but. In my first attempt at the game, I think I got killed by this type of mob 3 or 4 times. I got myself killed by a fox. A fox!
I never really bought into the whole, “Minecraft is a kids game” theory that some people like to bandy about – especially in light of their acquisition by Microsoft and the subsequent push to appeal to the younger crowds with more merch, kid-friendly add-ons, the movie, etc. But now, Hytale is making me wonder if those people don’t have some solid points. At least the modern iterations of Minecraft are reading a lot more little-kid than Hytale is.
Add to this all the ways Minecraft has begun to police game and play styles with things like threatening to remove and/or removing anarchy servers, consistent farm nerfing, etc., and it all adds up to a game that seems to be consistently marching in a direction that I don’t really care for. The whole idea of a giant sandbox game should be to play how you want to play. And if you want to build a bunch of stupid-OP farms, that should be a thing that you can do. And if you don’t want to do that, then nobody is forcing you to.
Minecraft does still lead the pack when it comes to character customization though. You can customize 100% of your player skin. With Hytale, you’re picking from pre-selected bits, and can only customize colors. As you can see in the images below, I have done a LOT of character customizing in Minecraft. Hytale LiliVonSchtupp (my name in both games) is much simpler (and cleaner looking, but whatever).
So, is Hytale a Mincraft Killer?
I don’t think so. Both games are different enough that I think they can co-exist peacefully. However, this opinion hinges almost entirely on Microsoft’s ideas for going forward. If they plan to utilize Katie Scott’s microtransaction specialization (and why else would they have hired her), it will definitely kill Minecraft for me. There is nothing I hate more than finding myself in a pay-to-win game. If I want add-ons, etc. I already know where the Marketplace is. I can go get them myself, thank you. So, the addition of micro-transactions would immediately drive me as far from the game as I can get. If they can reign that impulse in, I think I could happily include both games in my regular play roster. We’ll see.
