Popular MOBA League of Legends was briefly unplayable over the past 24 hours, as the digital licence for the game expired.
With just a couple of days to go before Hytale attempts to do what Riot Games couldn't (release), Simon Collins-Laflamme and the Hypixel Studios team continue to showcase some of the features the long-delayed crafting game will include at launch next week. Much of the recent focus has been on player creation features, with the Entity Tool - part of its larger Creative Tooling menu - being the latest.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Hytale's creative tools let you wedge a live animal into a wall, and the implications for player-made worlds are huge
It's not a new League of Legends season if something doesn't go wrong. As the MOBA kicks off 2026 with a bang (the For Demacia cinematic slapped), there are plenty of huge changes to contend with, including the massive adjustments to each of the game's roles, the removal of Atakhan and addition of Crystalline Overgrowth, and changes to pacing to ensure that you get into game faster. But, as part of the Demacia-themed Act 1, all eyes have been on Demacia Rising, a brand new, city builder-inspired minigame that casts you as a young Lux trying to carve out a place in the world. It's the thing that I was most excited to try out, but, unfortunately, it's not working.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Riot disables League of Legends Demacia Rising following loading issues, with no signs of when it'll return
Riot has just dropped the full details for League of Legends 2026 Season One upon us, and there's plenty to be excited for. The new 'For Demacia' update is here, and alongside the much-anticipated Shyvana rework, there's confirmation that ARAM Mayhem will be extended for at least a while longer, and a look at exactly what we'll be doing in the Demacia Rising event. If Riot is able to deliver on everything it's been teasing, then 2026 is shaping up to be a pretty transformative year for the long-running MOBA.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: League of Legends ARAM Mayhem is here to stay, as Riot reveals the Shyvana rework, a city-building minigame, and new anti-griefing tools
How do Hytale mods work? The Minecraft mod community is perhaps one of the biggest around, with new mods still arriving on a daily basis, over ten years since the blocky sandbox game's initial release. From subtle aesthetic changes to full-on gameplay mods, you can find it all, so of course, the question of how Hytale mods work surrounds the release of the unofficial Minecraft spin-off. Hytale comes from the creators of the immensely popular Hypixel Minecraft server, and maintains the block-game look and style the team is already used to working with. As such, the comparisons to games like Minecraft, and Minecraft itself, are natural. When it comes to modding, then, there's a lot to live up to, but Hypixel has been very forthcoming on the subject, and we know modding is available from day one of early access. Here's what we know so far.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Hytale mods - how they work and what we want to see
January 8, 2026: 9:12am PT: Riot has since confirmed the legitimacy of the email, noting that "a delay in production" led to the Arcane boxes' late shipping. It has also provided more information on Spiritforged's rollout. Riftbound, Riot Games' League of Legends card game, has had an odd start to life. While the TCG itself is genuinely fun, with a unique identity that sets it apart from competitors like Magic: The Gathering, Lorcana, and Star Wars Unlimited, Riot has consistently struggled to meet demand. The first lot of packs went out with missing rares (something Riot has confirmed will impact Set 2, Spiritforged's, release as well), with the developer admitting that it "missed the mark" on supply and demand.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Riot delays League of Legends Riftbound's Arcane box, so here's how long you'll need to wait
Despite seeming close to death just a couple of months ago, we're now just days away from Hytale arriving in very early access. There's been huge buzz around the Minecraft rival for years, but since being prised from the clutches of Riot Games, the hype has reached new levels. Despite its art style, I've always been struck by how beautiful Hytale looks, but apparently, it'll look even better soon - and things will get much easier when it comes to creating and editing your own cubic kingdoms. V2 of Hytale's world generation system will "redefine the block-game genre," according to Hypixel Studios' top dog - and although it'll launch with V1, it'll offer you small glimpses of V2 worlds.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Watch out Minecraft, Hytale says its new world generation system will "redefine the block game genre"
Hytale blocks up in early access this month, having swiftly gone from thing in need of ressurection to thing that's coming out. As such, the team of devs led by original Hypixel co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme are firmly in promo mode, with the world generation mechanics they've just posted a deep dive into clearly being an aspect of the game they think'll be key to its appeal.
Cubey sandbox crafter Hytale launches into early access next Tuesday, January 13th, after a dicey few months in which it was cancelled, bought out by the original developers, and revived like a majestic square-beaked phoenix. It’ll also have a native Linux version, allowing anyone fed up with Microsoft’s continued bullshit to play it on a system running something that isn’t an increasingly bloated or prematurely abandoned Windows.
There are caveats, mind. In a Xitter post announcing the Linux version, Hypixel co-founder and tech director Kevin Carstens – well spotted by Gaming on Linux – stresses that it’ll be an "experimental" endeavour, potentially susceptible to bugs specific to different distributions (sub-versions) of the open-source OS. And the Steam Deck, which runs the Linux-based SteamOS, is in a trickier position still. Carstens explains that limited testing on a docked Deck, with the handheld aided by a mouse and keyboard, suggests it can run local singleplayer fine, though it’s "not officially recommended" as a Hytale-playing device as the game currently lacks controller support.
Still fresh off of being bought from Riot and revived by a team lead by Hypixel co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme, Hytale now has an early access release date. The Minecrafty sandbox emerges from the cave it's spent years exploring early next year, with pre-orders kicking off next month.
League of Legends has become a very different game in 2025. With the introduction of the battle pass system and ever-changing seasonal Rifts, it's taken a moment to get used to Riot's new and 'improved' LoL, and I'm still unsure whether or not I like it. 2026, however, is dropping radical, much-needed adjustments to balance, game time, and epic monsters, hopefully making things a bit smoother for top laners and ADCs. There are 11 new items - two of which are fan favorites - and we're being transported back to Demacia at the peak of its power. On paper, this season looks like it solves a lot of the MOBA's problems, and it's honestly quite exciting.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: League of Legends is giving every role a transformative rework as part of the best slate of changes I've seen in years
"It's been 3,000 years..." is an iconic gif I hope has been posted in response to the official announcement that a stack of fan-favorite Fortnite skins have returned after years on the bench. Having missed the chance to make their mark in the brightly-colored recreation of Springfield in one of the best battle royale games of the lot, you can, at the very least, have Jinx and Vi, the problematic Piltover personas from Arcane, bring their chaotic energy back to Fortnite around Hawkins, Indiana, where there are stranger things afoot than Homer Simpson drunkenly pottering around in his underwear.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: After four years, two of the most requested Fortnite skins are finally back on the menu, but fans are screaming for more
League of Legends has made me cry many times. Whether it's Silco's untimely demise in the first season of Arcane, or getting absolutely obliterated during a ranked promo match, for all my complaints about Riot's MOBA, I still truly love it. But my mind can't help but wander back to the good ol' days of Butcher's Bridge and Snowdown Showdown, and while we saw the Gangplank-inspired ARAM map return earlier this year, the one I've been waiting for has always been Winter Rift. Baron's been missing his Santa hat for far too long, but League of Legends patch 25.23 has brought it back, and I won't lie, I got a little teary.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Forget the new champion, the latest League of Legends patch just made me cry with an addition I've waited almost a decade for
Hytale has had a bit of a rough go of it, given how it's been in the works for a decade, still isn't finished, and was unceremoniously cancelled. Not to worry though, as it's back! And it's in the hands of its developer's original co-founders. With the announcement that Hytale will live on, it was also noted that the game's pricing would be revealed soon, and soon it was as it's already been confirmed.
Right, here's your prescribed dose of actual nice news in the games industry for the week. Hytale is back from the dead! Despite a decade's worth of development, the game was canned with Hypixel Studios forced to completely shutter. Hypixel founder Simon Collins-Laflamme did say he wanted to talk to previous owner Riot about re-acquiring Hytale, and as it turns out, that's exactly what he did!
Cheers have been heard across the internet, with jubilations that, yes, Hytale has been saved from cancellation.
