The latest video game company to be met with layoffs is the publisher and parent company of the Smite and Smite 2 developer, Hi-Rez Studios. As announced in a lengthy X post by CEO Stewart Chisam, we’re told that the layoffs will affect those in the marketing and publishing roles at the company, as well as developers at the Evil Mojo and Titan Forge studios affected too.
Chisam states: “Today, we’re making some difficult but necessary changes to ensure Hi-Rez’s long-term success, with a specific focus on positioning SMITE 2 for a long and sustainable future.
“As part of this internal reorganization and reprioritization, we are laying off some team members across Hi-Rez. This will disproportionately impact those in marketing and publishing roles, as well as some from our Evil Mojo, G&A, and Titan Forge divisions. The game team roles impacted disproportionally affect our team working on cosmetic skin content and system features.”
The reason for the layoffs seems to be that Smite 2 is currently underperforming in its Early Access phase, and that to account for this, the publisher is looking to reduce its team size to something more akin to the team size that developed and supported Smite 1 throughout its lifecycle.
Chisam adds: “This move follows a comprehensive review of our strategy and operations. In the game division, we have decided to concentrate our efforts entirely on SMITE 2, outside of small teams supporting light updates for Paladins and SMITE 1. Within SMITE 2, we are almost exclusively prioritizing gameplay development in the near term—such as new modes and gods—as well as quality improvements—over some cosmetic and monetization features previously planned in the run-up to the game’s free-to-play launch next year.
“Notably, the core dev team currently working on SMITE 2 after these changes is still a significant size: Larger than the SMITE 1 team was throughout most of its lifecycle (outside of a period during and shortly after the pandemic). The team working on gods and gameplay features (versus skins and monetization/progression/system features) is larger than the SMITE 1 team ever was for such features.
“Our goal for SMITE 2 in the near term is to create the best possible game experience for our community and a game that provides joy to players and can sustain itself long into the 2030s. As we’ve gained experience through the Alpha, the process of migrating gods from SMITE 1 to SMITE 2 is now clearer, and we also better understand what players want from the game. We’re doubling down on ensuring this transition meets player expectations and moves faster, taking into account the lessons we have learned in the early Alpha.”
The exact number of affected developers has not yet been made clear.