Habbo Hotel Origins: Beloved 2000s game returns – and immediately runs into technical problems

Habbo Hotel, an online game beloved among young people in the 2000s, has returned.

But the revival has proven so popular that new players are struggling to get into the game, because of the “huge” level of interest, developers said.

Habbo Hotel was originally launched in Finland in 2000, and in the years that followed it became vastly popular with young people. While it received some criticism for its moderation failures – with some reporting they were subjected to sexual and violent chats as soon as they logged in – it nonetheless became a gathering place for teens.

Since then, its fame and usage has declined. It has continued to run as “Habbo”, though without the same cultural impact, with a new look and extra features.

The earlier version of the game is now returning, however. The company behind the game has announced that it will launch a new game – Habbo Hotel: Origins – that offers the same experience it did in 2005.

“After discovering an old decrepit server with some long-lost files at the beginning of this year, over the past six months or so long-time Habbo developer and player Macklebee has lovingly restored an old version of Habbo Hotel first released in 2005,” the company behind it said in an announcement.

Developers warned that “Habbo Hotel Origins is an 18+ game, so it has less stringent auto moderation than Habbo”, suggesting that there may still be adult content available in the game.

The early version of Origins will take a “community-minded approach”, it said, with players able to decide how the game will develop from here.

Early interest seemed strong, however. Developers were forced to issue a host of tweets advising players that the huge interest meant that some of its systems were not working properly.

“We’re seeing a serious influx of people into the service at the moment, please hold tight while we try and get people in!” one tweet read.

“We’re aware of reports that email registration codes are taking a while to come through for some people,” said another. “They should arrive eventually, our service is dealing with a huge amount of new players and registrations.”

Developers had initially encouraged players to sign up early since usernames will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. But they advised players affected by technical problems to “give it 5-10 mins and try again”.