This Week in Hytale: Mar 13 - Mar 20, 2026
Key Points
- Update 4 launches March 26th with 500+ new blocks (many were cut before early access)
- Final pre-release window is open. Server owners and mod devs should test their stuff now.
- Community's arguing about server-side mods and fake player counts
- Minecraft's lead dev admitted he'd rather play Minecraft than Hytale right now (fair)
- People are building some genuinely impressive stuff with what we already have
No official blog post this week, but plenty happened anyway. Update 4 is dropping March 26th with over 500 new blocks, and Simon's been teasing the hell out of it on Twitter. The community's having some... let's call them lively discussions about server culture. And gaming press is starting to notice Hytale exists again.
Update 4 Hype Train Leaves the Station
Simon started the week with a casual "lots of new blocks coming" and then proceeded to keep raising the number. First it was "more than 100." Then "more than 200." Then "actually a lot more." The final count? Over 500 new blocks.
Here's the thing about these blocks. They're not all brand new. Simon clarified that a lot of these were cut before early access because they were broken visually or had config issues. The team needed them for world gen 2, and there's a building contest coming up, so they figured why not release them now.
KweebecCorner already put out a breakdown video covering all 500 blocks. That's dedication.
Last Call for Server Owners and Mod Developers
The final pre-release patch dropped this week. Update 4 goes live March 26th. If you're running a server or building mods, this is your window to make sure everything still works.
You can enable the pre-release through the launcher settings. Test your plugins. Break things now so they don't break when real players show up.
Community Drama: Fake Player Counts and Server-Side Mods
Reddit had opinions this week. Two posts in particular stirred things up.
First, someone made a plea to stop faking server player counts with bots. Apparently some servers are inflating their numbers to look more populated than they actually are. It's the oldest trick in the book, and it's annoying as hell when you join expecting activity and find tumbleweeds.
Fake player counts might be worse than low player counts. At least with low numbers you know what you're getting into.
Then there's the server-side mods debate. One player thinks they might ruin the game. The concern is basically that servers will fragment the experience so much that you won't recognize Hytale from one server to the next. It's a valid worry, but also... that's kind of the point of a modding platform? This tension isn't new. Minecraft dealt with it for years.
Minecraft Dev Has Thoughts on Hytale
PC Gamer ran a piece where Minecraft's lead dev admitted he'd rather play Minecraft than Hytale right now. The Hytale boss basically said "yeah, fair." It's honest. Hytale is still in early access. Minecraft has 15 years of content and polish. Nobody should be surprised that the finished game feels better to play than the work-in-progress one.
What's interesting is that the Minecraft dev also said Hytale is "very polished." That's not nothing. Coming from someone who works on the competition, that's actually a compliment. It just means the game isn't done yet.
The Gaming Press Remembers Hytale Exists
Several outlets published Hytale content this week. Instant Gaming News did a retrospective on the "rise, fall and return" of the project. GameSpot published a guide on how to tame animals. MSN covered the fact that animal taming is finally being added post-launch (which feels like something that should've been there from the start, but here we are).
Eurogamer compared Everwind to "Minecraft meets Wind Waker" and wondered if it's trying to be Hytale with airships. People really want another game to fill this niche.
What the Community's Actually Building
Forget the drama. Look at what people are making.
Someone's building a working motorcycle mod. Another player is constructing a motorway junction with freehand curves (those curves were apparently a pain to build, and I believe it). There's a fortified desert city in progress.
Multiple posts about how good ReShade looks and how gorgeous shaders are. Hytale's art style holds up really well with post-processing. The blocky aesthetic doesn't fight the effects the way some games do.
The best part about Hytale's visuals is that they scale. Looks fine vanilla, looks stunning with shaders.
Oh, and someone made football work in Hytale before the World Cup. Priorities.
Miscellaneous Gaming News
A few other pieces mentioned Hytale in passing. HostingAdvice.com wrote about the server hosting race behind sandbox game launches. PC Gamer covered PlayerUnknown's modjam event where devs broke their own game for two days. PCGamesN published completely unrelated guides to King Legacy codes and Palworld mods.
Nothing earth-shattering, but it shows Hytale is staying in the conversation even during quiet weeks.
What's Next
Update 4 drops March 26th. The pre-release is live right now. If you're planning to do anything with servers or mods, test them this week. Don't be the person scrambling on launch day because something broke and you didn't check.
The community's in a weird spot right now. People are building cool stuff, but also arguing about what the game should be. That's normal for early access. The next few updates will probably set the tone for how the modding ecosystem develops. Server culture is forming right now, for better or worse.
500 new blocks is a lot. Builders are going to have fun with this update.