Hytale is accused of providing usernames

Several different ones Hytal It appears that players have had their unique usernames stolen and given to streamers and other content creators, resulting in some bad feelings in the community. Hytal He no longer appears to be engaging in the practice, though only after being urged to do so by his support team via social media.

After Early Access launches around mid-January Minecraft– game inspired Hytal has been making waves since its release, peaking at around 2.8 million concurrent players. With its deliberately blocky visuals, variety of biomes, and procedurally generated zones, it has drawn many comparisons to its primary source of inspiration, both for its sandbox style of gameplay and its RPG-like Adventure Mode, which attracts fans with a wide variety of playstyles.

Statement on developer Hytale's “I Have No Regrets” issues with the game's Early Access launch

One of the developers of sandbox RPG Hytale talks about the game's Early Access launch and what it took to get the game to a playable state.

Hytale accused of downloading player usernames and providing them to streamers

WITH HytalThe various features quickly gained such popularity that it was difficult to lock down specific usernames, not even a month after the game's Early Access launch. Now reports claim that members of the game's staff are favoring players with more social reach by giving requests for usernames that have already been claimed by other players. Reddit user Mutated-Nut compiled several such instances of “frankly disturbing” behavior that appears to have been carried out by at least one member of the game's support team.

In one such case, YouTuber The_Horizon shared on Twitter in early December that they secured Hytal account username “The_Horizon”, although they would prefer to say “Horizon”. On January 28, they shared a follow-up message that showed their username had been changed to “Horizont,” even though the account name had previously been claimed by a completely different player. In the second case, YouTuber MashClash made a similar post, although this one indicated that he was assigned the username “Mash” after requesting Hytal support team, credited said team with a “shoutout” for helping him match his game name to his YouTube handle. In one of those cases, an investigative source on Reddit discovered that a player whose username was removed was left with the generic-sounding “CoralShield434,” a stark departure from what they claimed when they signed up for the game.

Just hours after the original post was posted on Reddit, Simon Collins-Laflamme, founder of Hypixel Studios, also took to social media to announce that the situation is being addressed and investigated so players can continue playing. Hytal with friends without fear of losing the chosen usernames. “If a YouTuber or streamer wants a specific username that's already taken, they can't claim it,” Collins-Laflamme said. If a player wishes to request an existing username, they may do so and the owner of that username may be notified by email, but they retain the right to decline, either by outright refusing to accept the request or by ignoring it entirely. Collins-Laflamme went on to say that he plans to “personally investigate what happened,” suggesting that no player should have their username removed unless it contains profanity or otherwise violates Hytalterms of service.

As for the individual parts of the matter, the two specific YouTubers named in the Reddit post both said they would be willing to return the usernames they obtained from Hytal support, and MashClash posted on Twitter that they have already successfully returned the username “Mash” to its original owner. He also attached photographic evidence of the text exchange, which showed no bad blood between the two players, “so I hope everyone can relax.” Such interaction is a positive sign of camaraderie between the players, and with over 1,900 fans successfully petitioning for a rescue Hytal after it was first canceled last June, the sandbox game may be well on its way to building a thriving gaming community.