SMITE 2: MASS LAYOFFS, NO Pro League & Bleeding Players

So you wanted me to talk about SMITE 2...

00:00 - Mass layoffs - who is affected?
01:38 - Who is responsible?
02:45 - The CEO situation and "HiRez ventures"
05:27 - Why things are unlikely to change
06:58 - SMITE 2 being sold off?
08:01 - SMITE 2's future

#SMITE2 #SMITE #HIREZ

Sources:

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Songs:
Paul Leonard-Morgan - Bells of Laguna Bend

[DWAINEMonster]

Smite 2 was almost unplayable a few months ago. The devs worked so hard to make it a fun game. And then they fired those people after they did the impossible with this game.

[TheTactical]

they should kick this greedy CEO out he is killing the entire company

[helrazr]

Been missing your presence since you swapped over to New World content, you really had a unique flavor to Smite content creation.
I've been trying to bolster the playerbase, with commenting and a reddit post, so the people left don't lose their jobs, and Smite as a game, and concept dies and goes away.
Smite 2 is way more fun than Smite 1 ever was currently, and seeing all that hardwork and effort disappear would be an even bigger tragedy, because we're on the precipice of greatness and this news hurts.

[PredicateCapeTheSt]

I will always look back with joy the years I spent as a mod for you which is one of the things that brought me into Smite so hard and led me to meet so many people, this is really heartbreaking.

[JohnnyFamas]

Selling the ip would probably be the best thing for the game. Especially if we get new management and new faces on the balancing team and design team because over the past few years that God design and balancing has been stale and hasn’t shifted in years, sure you can blame the CEO, but at the end of the day, people don’t wanna play the game for more than just the reason of the CEO existing. At least some of the the led designers are at fault here too

[BRPerfections]

Hey duke nice to see you again but I'm sorry for the circumstance.

[ZombiedWolf]

7:00 I do agree that Stu and Erez most likely do not want to sell the studio/IP. This This whole thing is just terrible management. However, I disagree that it wouldnt be something worth investing into. Granted, this really only applies to EPIC buying it. I can totally seeing EPIC wanting to add a game such as SMITE to their list of games to add into Fortnite, especially to try and compete with Deadlock.
Sure they god rid of Paragon, their original MOBA competitor, but that was back when Fortnite took off. Now that Fortnite is established I can see them wanting to put a game like that in there. A huge worry of course is keeping the devs if this happens. The only thing I can say about this is when EPIC bought Harmonix, they kept everyone. I cant say if they did that with the rocket league devs, and fall guys, but I know for sure they did with Harmonix.

[TheJanissary]

Anyone suprised in this point?This company become a meme in gaming world.I feel bad for people wasted their efforts for the games gonna be dead because of this garbage ass CEO's.

[ThaaKannon]

Crazy times we are living in where it seems all too often that a lot of people are losing their jobs & games, companies, etc. are failing .. I put 1000+ hours into smite it’ll always be a special game to me

[daneus]

I regret purchasing the Founders edition recently. I hadn't played this game for ages, I was so hyped to see that SMITE2 was released, bought to support only to see news like this days later. Not touching this game nor interested in wasting time on a game Im not attatched to anyways. I think alot of people are in similar position like mine and will be discouraged to try the game out again

[FatalWarGhost]

Yoooo I genuinely didn't believe you'd make a smite video! I commented on one of your other videos recently.. thanks Duke good to hear from ya!

[Persn]

What happen to smite is textbook corporate mismanagement.
They literally killed their golden goose, a game that had reached the nirvana state of live service where they are "stable" for years, at a very respectable 15-20k average player (on PC) by trying to pull a Overwatch 2 (but somehow even worse).

I have never seen such a clear crash in the playerbase of a "stable game" than the one steamchart shows for smite1.
The moment they announced Smite 2, it wen't down at an incredibly steady pace and the recent confirmation that the game is now on life support will probably make it bottom out completely.

[DmytroBogdan]

For what current Smite 2 players are paying for right now? A random maintenance crew that pretend to "develop" a game?

[Frappelychee]

"69"...laid off? 😶 I'm hoping this is a massive PR stunt they're trying to pull off and the people let go have been paid 1-2 years worth of salary and have been promised a position later on if they choose to come back when the game has gotten more "successful" 🤔

[Rzrbld]

Ya it sucks that the people who made the bad decisions to push smite 2 out to the public in such a terrible state will keep leading the games direction to it's death and many of the ones who worked to make the game worth it for those players who supported them end up paying a terrible price. Even if good people do great things to keep it going how can anyone invest in the game now that everyone knows what can and will so easily happen.

[MightiestBeard]

I think the biggest problem happened right at the announcement of Smite 2; their weird approach to skins in Smite 2 that people have already purchased in Smite 1. This alienated so many people. Then they forced out a buy-in beta with the game in a HORRIBLE state with the unfortunate timing of Deadlock blowing up soon after. Then Smite 2 hits F2P and Marvel Rivals is slurping up all the players looking for a PVP experience. Unfortunately I don't think they're going to punch through with Smite 2. Smite 1 was always niche, and with as awful a launch as they've had I don't think anyone is going to bother coming back aside from the small core. I have a friend whose name is on the list you showed of employees that were laid off and they think Hi-Rez is probably cooked. It'd be a shame, but I don't see a way out of this on their current path.

[mrhednist]

I'm waiting for the Jesus and Mohamed dlc

[truvski]

A big problem is that there isnt enough gods for them to use a ftp structure. especially when a lot of favorite gods arent out like sylv for people to want to buy skins, on top of that they have cross game skins so people will have already spent the money, even worse from an revenue standpoint they transfer your in game currency. From a fan perspective it would have sucked to lose skins but from a company standpoint they should of not reused the same old skins and started fresh. I have some ties with league streamers and they didn't really try doing any sponsorships, which i would argue that instead of layoffs they should of spent the money on sponsored streams when they game went ftp. The game feels good atm, if they implemented a better skill info ui like showing cc time and rank up bonuses it would be a lot more welcoming to vets of other mobas. without it it will come off as an arcade game.

[nightowlkid]

I haven’t played Smite in 5 years due to stuff. I was really looking foward to download and play again but after hearing about this I’m not so sure :/

[tims]

thanks for your opinion. it was nice to hear your voice again.