Smite and Realm Royale developer and publisher HiRez is shifting most of its remaining staff and resources away from some of its current games in order to support 2024’s Smite 2. This means the original Smite, Rogue Company, and class-based shooter Paladins will no longer receive large content updates in the future.
As reported by GameDeveloper.com, earlier this week HiRez Studios laid off around 70 employees according to public posts on social media. A user on the Smite subreddit has cataloged all of the public layoff confirmations from individual employees and documented them in one post. A Discord message spotted by Dexerto, reportedly from a HiRez representative, indicated that a “reduction” across all of the the company’s internal teams has happened and this has led to some big changes for its games. HiRez Studios’ president Stewart Chisam later confirmed the layoffs in an email to Kotaku.
According to that same aforementioned Discord message, HiRez will no longer be supporting or developing large updates for Paladins, Rogue Company, or the original Smite.
“Smite 1, Paladins and Rogue Company servers will remain available for the foreseeable future, but no further major updates are currently planned for these games,” said the unnamed HiRez rep. “We understand this may come as a disappointment to many of you, but know that Paladins has an incredibly special place in our hearts. We plan to keep the servers and currently available content running as long as possible to allow you to continue to enjoy the game.”
Chisam confirmed to Kotaku that 70 people were laid off across “all divisions.”
“We know this is an exceptionally difficult time to find work in the industry, which makes it even more devastating to have let go of so many loyal and talented developers,” Chisam told Kotaku. “We pursued every angle available to us to avoid these cuts, but it was necessary to ensure that we survive in this tumultuous environment.”
Chisam told Kotaku that Smite 2 will continue to be the “primary focus of the newly streamlined operations” and confirmed that the OG Smite, Paladins, and Rogue Company servers will all “remain available for the foreseeable future.” He also indicated that “minor updates” are still planned for these games.
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