Hytale Co-Founder Simon Collins-Laflamme Told a Prospective Player to Wait Before Playing, Called the Game "Very Basic Right Now" and Sent Her a Free Copy Anyway: What It Means Six Days Before Chapter 1

Six days out from Hytale Chapter 1 on 12 October 2026, the co-founder of the game told somebody who was about to start playing it to wait. Then he sent her a copy for free. That is not a contradiction, and it is not the disaster a screenshot of one post makes it look like. It is expectation setting, done in public, by the person with the least to gain from doing it. What follows is every post involved, reproduced exactly as written, with its timestamp in UTC, and the distinctions that matter if you are deciding whether to buy on 12 October. One note on method before anything else. We have not tested any build of Hytale. There are no benchmarks, no frame rates and no player counts of our own in this article. Every factual claim below is either a quoted post from a verified account or a statement about what the official channels have published, and where something is unknown we say so rather than filling the gap. The Short Version On 3 October 2026 at 19:17:46 UTC, Simon Collins-Laflamme replied to a prospective player: "I suggest waiting before playing, we have good updates coming up, the game is very basic right now, I bought it back a few months ago from cancellation". It was a reply, not an announcement. The advice went to one specific account, @PrettyAngyVA, a small streamer, in a short conversation. It was not addressed to buyers generally and it was not posted from the official @Hytale account. "Very basic right now" is about right now. It describes the build that exists before Chapter 1 ships. Simon does not say Chapter 1 will be basic. He says the opposite about what is coming: "we have good updates coming up". He gave her the game anyway. At 19:13:55 UTC: "sent you over a code access". At 19:17:11 UTC: "I sent you a DM on here with the game for free". It was not a one off. On 28 September 2026 he told a different user, "Bucky no pls wait few chapters". He is playing it himself, on the old systems. "I'm currently doing a legit new world run and suffering through the wgv1 and old crafting lol". That run is feeding the change list. "I played the game a lot past few days and lots of things annoyed me so you will see ton of changes and content lol". The official channels have been quiet. hytale.com has published nothing since 1 October 2026, and the official @Hytale account has posted nothing between 24 September and today. What Simon Actually Said, and Who He Said It To The exchange ran over eight minutes on the evening of 3 October 2026. It started at 19:09:30 UTC, when Simon replied to @PrettyAngyVA: @PrettyAngyVA hi, hope you try the game in a few chapters Four minutes and twenty five seconds later, at 19:13:55 UTC, he posted: @PrettyAngyVA sent you over a code access At 19:17:11 UTC he confirmed how: @PrettyAngyVA I sent you a DM on here with the game for free Thirty five seconds after that, at 19:17:46 UTC, came the post everybody has been sharing. It is here, and it is reproduced below exactly as posted, including the double space between "updates" and "coming": @PrettyAngyVA I suggest waiting before playing, we have good updates coming up, the game is very basic right now, I bought it back a few months ago from cancellation Read the order of events, because the order is the story. The free code came before the warning. He had already given her the game when he told her not to rush into it, which rules out the least charitable reading, that this was somebody managing a refund risk. There was no sale to protect. He had already handed it over. On the last clause: he writes that he "bought it back a few months ago from cancellation". We are reporting that as his own words about his own purchase and going no further. We are not characterising what was cancelled, by whom, or on what terms, because the post does not say and we have not verified anything beyond the sentence itself. "Very Basic Right Now" Is About the Build Today, Not About Chapter 1 This is the single most important distinction in the story, and it is the one most likely to be flattened in a headline. Simon wrote "the game is very basic right now" on 3 October 2026. On that date, the publicly playable thing was the pre-release line, which ended at Update 7 Part 5 two days earlier. Chapter 1 does not exist for anybody outside the studio until 12 October. He is describing the game in front of him, not the release that is six days away. The same sentence makes that explicit in the other direction: "we have good updates coming up". He is contrasting now with later, not predicting that later will also be thin. And the earlier post in the same exchange, "hope you try the game in a few chapters", sets a timeframe measured in chapters rather than days. So the accurate summary is narrow and worth getting right: the co-founder thinks the current build is thin, expects it to get substantially better, and thinks somebody new to it may enjoy it more after a few chapters than during the first one. Anybody quoting him as saying Chapter 1 will be basic is quoting something he did not write. What is still fair to take from it: this is the same person whose post-Chapter 1 roadmap describes three work pipelines running at once and a team over 100 people. He is not short of confidence in the plan. He is short of confidence in the state of the game on the day you would be installing it. Not a One Off: The Same Advice on 28 September If 3 October were a single awkward reply, it would barely be a story. It was not. On 28 September 2026 at 16:12:27 UTC, in a different thread, Simon wrote: @ItsBuddhaCat @flash_canadian @Bucky_cm Bucky no pls wait few chapters Five days apart, two different people, the same recommendation, the same unit of time. That makes it a consistent position rather than a slip. Wait a few chapters is apparently what he tells people who ask. He Is Playing a Legitimate Run Himself, and Hating Parts of It The context that makes the advice land differently is that Simon is not describing the game from a spreadsheet. On 30 September 2026 at 23:04:45 UTC he posted: @HytaleAlerts We are LOCKED IN! I'm currently doing a legit new world run and suffering through the wgv1 and old crafting lol Two things in one sentence. He is playing a normal, no shortcuts run. And he is doing it on worldgen v1 and the old crafting system, which are exactly the parts he says he is suffering through. Worldgen v1 is the current generator, the one Slikey has confirmed stays moddable, and crafting is one of the three pipelines in the roadmap. His complaint is about systems already queued for replacement. Then on 4 October 2026 at 23:24:24 UTC, the consequence, posted in a thread about content: @BagaMark2104 @bnmootrxv @TheEnderNinja @0Pantherr I played the game a lot past few days and lots of things annoyed me so you will see ton of changes and content lol This is the most useful post of the set, and the most reassuring one, for a simple reason. The founder playing his own game at length, getting annoyed, and converting that annoyance into a change list is the process working. It also explains the "wait a few chapters" line without any drama: he knows what is on the list because he wrote it this week, and he knows how different the game will feel once it lands. Concept art is not a build. The gap between what has been designed and what is in the current client is the gap Simon is describing when he says "very basic right now". The One Place He Pushes Back Instead of Apologising It would be wrong to paint the week as a founder apologising for his game. On 1 October 2026 at 19:11:19 UTC, asked about combat, he answered a PvP player firmly: @yellowslotcar This is not a pvp update at all, we need to get our pve stuff put ASAP and rebalance when the full package is out there. I talk to some pvpers almost daily, they understand this as well That is a priority call stated plainly: PvE first, rebalance later, once there is a full package to balance against. If you came to Hytale for competitive combat, read that as what it is, a deferral, and read our PvP weapon tier list and combat guide as a snapshot of the current systems rather than a settled meta. He is telling PvP players the same thing he told @PrettyAngyVA, in different words: the version you want is not the version arriving now. A Launch Week Support Note: One Rare Bug the Team Cannot Reproduce Separately, and worth knowing before you spend money, on 5 October 2026 at 22:46:17 UTC Simon replied to users reporting a problem: @TorbisXD @Slammaaa Our devs pushed fixes for this a few days ago, but we don't have hardware that can reproduce it. It's fixed for some, but it seems it's not for Slamma it looks like. We kinda need the hardware to reproduce it; it's a very rare issue, but the team is aware We are deliberately not telling you which bug this is, because the post does not say, and we are not naming the hardware either, for the same reason. What the post does establish is the shape of the problem: it is rare, it is hardware specific, a fix went out that worked for some people and not others, and the team cannot currently reproduce it in house. The practical takeaway is small but real. If you hit something on 12 October that nobody else seems to have, it may be in this category, which means a public report with your exact specifications is more useful than a report that just says it is broken. What the Official Channels Say This Week All of the above came from one personal account. The official surfaces have been close to silent in the run up to launch, and that contrast is part of why these replies are carrying so much weight. ChannelLatestDated hytale.com newsNothing published since 1 October 20261 October 2026 Pre-release patch notes pageStill ends at "Pre-Release (Update 7 Part 5)". No Part 6 exists1 October 2026 Hotfix pageTitled "HOTFIXES: UPDATE 6", newest entry 0.6.6. There is no Update 7 hotfix page14 September 2026 pre-release.docs.hytale.comPinned to 0.7.0-pre.5Current docs.hytale.comPinned to 0.6.8Current @Hytale on XNothing posted between 24 September and 6 October 2026. Last post is the Chapter 1 date announcement24 September 2026 So the last word from the company itself is the release date, and the most detailed commentary on the state of the game in the last fortnight has come from one co-founder answering replies. That matches what we reported about there being no pre-release on 8 October: the build you can play today is the last one before Chapter 1, and the studio has stopped shipping public changes to it. Should You Buy Hytale on 12 October? We are not going to pretend to answer that for you, but the posts above do sort buyers into groups fairly cleanly. If you want a deep, finished survival sandbox right now, the co-founder has told two separate people to wait a few chapters. That advice exists. Taking it is not a criticism of the game. If you want to be there at the start, see things change under you and be part of the feedback loop, buy on day one. The 4 October post about "ton of changes and content" is a reason to be in early, not a reason to stay out. If you came for PvP, read the 1 October reply again. PvE first, rebalance later. If you are a server owner or a modder, different calculation entirely. You need the build to prepare on, and our Chapter 1 server preparation checklist is the work to do this week regardless of what the retail player does. If you are asking because you read that Hytale is dead, that is a separate question with a separate answer, and we looked at it in our player count piece. The one thing we would push back on: treating "very basic right now" as a verdict on the product. It is a verdict on a date. The whole point of both the 28 September and the 3 October replies is that the date matters and the product is moving. What We Have Not Verified Any build of the game. We have not played or tested the pre-release client or Chapter 1. Nothing in this article is a hands on judgement, and there are no benchmarks or player counts of our own in it. What Chapter 1 contains. The content of the 12 October release has not been published in full by the studio, so every comparison between "right now" and Chapter 1 in this piece is a comparison of dates, not of feature lists. The hardware bug. The 5 October post names neither the bug nor the hardware. We are not guessing at either. Anything about the cancellation clause. "I bought it back a few months ago from cancellation" is reported as written. We have not verified the circumstances and are not inferring them. Whether the advice is general. Both "wait" posts are replies to named individuals. Neither is a statement to all buyers, and the studio has published no equivalent guidance. Timing of any fix. No post quoted here attaches a date to any change, including the "ton of changes and content" list. Frequently Asked Questions Did the Hytale co-founder really say the game is basic? Yes, with a specific scope. On 3 October 2026 at 19:17:46 UTC, Simon Collins-Laflamme wrote "the game is very basic right now" in a reply to a prospective player, in the same sentence as "we have good updates coming up". It describes the build playable on that date, which was the pre-release line ending at Update 7 Part 5, and it is not a statement about Chapter 1. Should I buy Hytale now or wait? Simon told two different people to wait a few chapters, on 28 September and 3 October 2026. That advice is on the record and worth weighing. The counterweight is his own 4 October post that playing the game heavily annoyed him enough that "you will see ton of changes and content", which is an argument for being there while that happens. Neither post is official guidance from the studio. When does Hytale Chapter 1 release? 12 October 2026, announced by the official @Hytale account on 24 September 2026. That announcement is still the account's most recent post. Our release date coverage has the detail. Did Simon give the game away for free? He gave a copy to that one person. At 19:13:55 UTC he wrote "sent you over a code access" and at 19:17:11 UTC "I sent you a DM on here with the game for free". There is no general giveaway in any post we have verified. Is Simon playing Hytale himself? He says so. On 30 September 2026 he posted that he was "currently doing a legit new world run and suffering through the wgv1 and old crafting lol". That run is on the pre-release build with worldgen v1 and the old crafting system, both of which are already slated to change. What is wgv1? Shorthand for worldgen version 1, the current world generator. Slikey has confirmed it stays moddable, and a portal approach for old worlds has been described for when v2 arrives. No date has been given for v2. Is there a known Hytale bug at launch? There is at least one rare, hardware specific issue the team is aware of and cannot reproduce internally, per Simon's 5 October 2026 reply. The post does not say what the bug is or what hardware it affects, so we are not naming either. Does this mean Chapter 1 will be disappointing? Nothing quoted here says that. Simon's criticism is aimed at the build as it stood in early October, and his stated reason for telling people to wait is that updates are coming. The post-Chapter 1 roadmap is the closest thing to a published picture of what follows. The Bottom Line A founder who hands you the game for free and then tells you to wait is not running a sales pitch. He is telling you what he thinks, six days before the biggest date in the project's history, and what he thinks is that the version in front of him is thin and the versions after it will not be. Be precise about the scope, because the precision is the whole value of the story. "Very basic right now" means the pre-release build in early October 2026. It does not mean Chapter 1, which nobody outside the studio has played. The man saying it is on a legitimate new world run, suffering through worldgen v1 and the old crafting system, and turning every irritation into a change he has promised you will see. Buy on 12 October if you want to watch that happen in real time. Wait a few chapters if you want the result. Both readings are supported by the same posts, which is unusual, and refreshing, for launch week. Planning to play on day one? Browse the Hytale server list and find somewhere to land on 12 October.