UPDATE 06/02/2025: A post on X from user Hocky2001 spotted by Dexerto points to Hi-Rez Studios having not only laid off up to 60 developers, but that Hi-Rez has also ended the development for the original SMITE, for Paladins, and Rogue Company.
There’s still been no official word from Hi-Rez Studios as to the true nature of these layoffs or the end of support for the aforementioned titles.
Original Story:
A new report from Game Developer identifies that SMITE 2 publisher Hi-Rez Studios has laid off “dozens” of developers across the SMITE team.
Spotted across a number of social media posts from now former Hi-Rez developers, (which were conveniently compiled into a Reddit thread), at least 30 developers have been impacted by the cuts, across design, production and esports branches.
There’s been no official word from Hi-Rez regarding the layoffs, including providing any reasoning behind what caused these cuts. Back in October 2024, Hi-Rez laid off a number of developers, claiming the layoff necessary for SMITE 2’s longevity and success.
It is, once again, extremely unfortunate to know that even more developers have been laid off, and to see the games industry continue in its state of turmoil with thousands of developers being laid off within the last two years alone.
We can only hope that 2025 ends up being a better year for the industry, and that we begin to see some light at the end of this layoff tunnel. Unfortunately, due to the number of times we’ve already had to update our article tracking our coverage of games industry layoffs, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Source – [Game Developer]