Hypixel's once-canceled Minecraft-like Hytale is nearly here. Announced in December 2018 with a trailer so exciting it's clocked up an incredible 62 million views on YouTube, Hytale was acquired by Riot Games in 2020 and languished in development hell for a bit before being canceled completely in June 2025. In November, however, it was sold back to one of the original co-founders and revived, complete with an early access release date on PC: January 13.

Co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme expects the early access game to garner significant interest, predicting "over one million players on the early access release day" and advising players download the launcher and log in now to help "significantly reduce launch-day stress."

Remember, Hytale isn't available on Steam or the Epic Games store, so you'll need to pop over to the official website to download the launcher from there, click download, and select Download for Windows. You'll then have to install the launcher to play.

Hytale early access global release times:

Depending on where you are in the world, Hytale is set to go live on:

Tuesday, January 13, 2026:

PST (San Francisco):

• 7am

CST (Austin, Mexico City):

• 9am

EST (New York):

• 10pm

GMT (London):

• 3pm

CET (Paris):

• 4pm

JST (Tokyo):

• 11pm

CST (Beijing):

• 11pm

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

AEST (Sydney):

• 2am

NZST (Wellington):

• 4am

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

We finally have a release date for Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5 — February 18, 2026. We've got a subtitle too, making the full, official name of the latest instalment: Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5 — Broken Things. And going on the latest trailer, the name seems quite fitting. Yikes.

With just a month to go, developer Mod Entertainment also shared a new cinematic teaser that brings us ever closer to the terrifying — and terrifyingly huge — Experiment 1006, or The Prototype, as we've come to know it.

Although Poppy Playtime is available on a plethora of platforms, right now, the new episode is only coming to PC, with the team stating "a full console release will follow in the months ahead."

"Deep within the vacant halls of the Playtime Co. lab, The Prototype stalks its unfinished work… the tattered, lifeless remains of toys that once were," the developer teases. "Broken things."

The episodic game kicked off way back in 2021, and the latest instalment, Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4, released at the end of January 2025, which means we've had a fair old wait to find out what happened after the events of Chapter 4. With the studio promising "stomach-churning terror" in this "chilling new layer," though, it should be worth the wait.

Chapter 5 will see us face off against the "deadly puppetmaster behind the horrifying events of Playtime Co’s dark past," solve puzzles, overcome obstacles, and "traverse this new realm of shadows in a fight for survival (and the truth)." Oh, and the delightful Huggy Wuggy is back, of course.

In news unlikely to surprise any horror mascot fan, developer Mob Entertainment has partnered with Legendary Entertainment to create a film based on its toy-factory horror hit. It's just the latest in a long line of horror games to receive an adaptation, with others including Five Nights at Freddy’s, Until Dawn, Dredge, Martha Is Dead, and the genre-defining Phasmophobia.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

It's been almost 10 years since we first stepped foot in Ubisoft's extraction shooter, The Division — yeah, I know — and it looks like the developer will celebrate by giving fans a chance to replay the experience in "definitive edition" form.

While not confirmed by Ubisoft, advertising for an unannounced Definitive Edition has popped up in Japan, along with what looks to be hoodies, caps, and tees inspired by The Division's anniversary, although it appears those are just prizes for players jumping into the game at an esports event rather than simply being available to buy.

#FPSDayX #TheDivision2#ディビジョン2 pic.twitter.com/1ySkfSb98B

— Domen🐻Gaming | ドウメン (@domen0204) January 11, 2026

What does this mean for us? Well, we're not quite sure. What we can say is The Division — which was announced at E3 2013 with a trailer that became one of the most talked-about of the show — broke sales records for Ubisoft, and a 10-year anniversary sure does seem to be a good time to remind us it exists. With the anniversary coming up in March, hopefully we won't have to wait too long for confirmation.

And in case you were wondering, yes, two years on from its announcement, Ubisoft is indeed still working on The Division 3. And while it has yet to show off the game or provide us with a release date, its chief developer recently said he believes it will have as big an impact as The Division 1.

"So, The Division 3 is in production, right? This is not a secret. It's been announced. It's shaping up to be a monster," Gerighty said, speaking during the New Game+ Showcase 2026. “I can't really say anything more than that. But this is, within these walls in Massive, we are working extremely hard on something that I think will be as big an impact as Division 1 was.”

Meanwhile, support for The Division 2 continues with various updates, and a team in Paris is putting the final touches of a The Division mobile game. The Division Heartland, a free-to-play spin-off, entered development in 2020 but was canceled in 2024.

Two months ago, Massive Entertainment introduced what it called a 'voluntary career transition program,' (the studio asked its staff to volunteer to be laid off) as part of a move to focus on The Division franchise and its Snowdrop game engine. It came as part of significant restructuring at Ubisoft that has seen multiple studio closures and rounds of layoffs. Massive Entertainment's Star Wars Outlaws, released in 2024, was a big sales disappointment for Ubisoft, despite significant development and marketing costs.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.