damn the list of devs that got layed off is insane

[25CM big boi]

is the team being replaced or did we just witness the game die?

[76561199674729373]

did they say WHY?

[76561198031740625]

Sadly the playercount speaks for itself. I was in good hopes since smite 2 seemed to pick up momentum and was even hoping they miiiight bring siege/clash/slash to smite 2 since I only played these modes really. I feel like sitting in a funeral remembering all the good times I shared with the fella.

[76561199674729373]

Originally posted by CawsMeCal:

It's dead

dont just echo stuff like that; if NEVERWINTER could 'survive' a six year 'death-scene' , smite will be just fine.

[Jopposan]

where is this list

[Xienen]

People, the remaining SMITE 2 team is still bigger than the SMITE 1 team was for many years of its life. Times are tough in the game industry right now. There are so many good studios that are going through layoffs or flat shutting down. This layoff was to ensure the continued future of SMITE. Layoffs always suck, but this one hit me so much harder. Sooo many truly great people had to be laid off. To honor their massive contributions, those of us remaining are going to work that much harder to make sure SMITE has a long future.

[nakama7777]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Smite/comments/1ij5sjy/hirez_layoffs_megathread/

[Lorska]

Originally posted by Xienen:

People, the remaining SMITE 2 team is still bigger than the SMITE 1 team was for many years of its life. Times are tough in the game industry right now. There are so many good studios that are going through layoffs or flat shutting down. This layoff was to ensure the continued future of SMITE. Layoffs always suck, but this one hit me so much harder. Sooo many truly great people had to be laid off. To honor their massive contributions, those of us remaining are going to work that much harder to make sure SMITE has a long future.

I don't actually believe this is about that some people got laid off.

A 50% workforce cut isn't "tough times", that's a gross overreach to even get to this point.
The fact it hit people that are known and liked by the community too is gonna be a massive blow to the public image and I'm actually not sure how to recover from that.

Considering it also hit people that publicly were working on introducing new smite 2 content is an even worse look...

I can't really fault anyone for being very worried about the future here, because instead of letting go of people working on smite 2 why is there no effort to increase monetization? Like why is this happening days before the introduction of the battle pass? Where are the skins to keep paying for those jobs?

And yes I'm aware of the absurdity of asking to be monetized, but if the alternative is just throwing everyone out, what is the point...

[Xienen]

Originally posted by Lorska:

I don't actually believe this is about that some people got laid off.

A 50% workforce cut isn't "tough times", that's a gross overreach to even get to this point.
The fact it hit people that are known and liked by the community too is gonna be a massive blow to the public image and I'm actually not sure how to recover from that.

Considering it also hit people that publicly were working on introducing new smite 2 content is an even worse look...

I can't really fault anyone for being very worried about the future here, because instead of letting go of people working on smite 2 why is there no effort to increase monetization? Like why is this happening days before the introduction of the battle pass? Where are the skins to keep paying for those jobs?

And yes I'm aware of the absurdity of asking to be monetized, but if the alternative is just throwing everyone out, what is the point...

I absolutely understand people on the outside looking in are worried about the future of this game, because they don't know the history of Hi-Rez nor the experience and capabilities of the team that remains. I know there were several public personalities that got laid off yesterday, but we still have a number of people working on SMITE 2 that were working on SMITE 1 before it was even called "SMITE".

It's only natural to want to find someone to blame, but the team believed we were going down the right path to success by getting as many SMITE 1 gods into SMITE 2 ahead of the free-to-play launch, because that would drive sales of the Founder's Editions. We were all excited to see the roster grow as that meant the best chance for continued expansion of the game.

[Lorska]

Originally posted by Xienen:

I absolutely understand people on the outside looking in are worried about the future of this game, because they don't know the history of Hi-Rez nor the experience and capabilities of the team that remains. I know there were several public personalities that got laid off yesterday, but we still have a number of people working on SMITE 2 that were working on SMITE 1 before it was even called "SMITE".

It's only natural to want to find someone to blame, but the team believed we were going down the right path to success by getting as many SMITE 1 gods into SMITE 2 ahead of the free-to-play launch, because that would drive sales of the Founder's Editions. We were all excited to see the roster grow as that meant the best chance for continued expansion of the game.

Oh yeah outside people will never have the context required for this, though it really does look quite bad.
It's also just a case where there is just no way to make this look good, even your statement of everyone remaining being capable just insinuates that half the company wasn't (sufficiently) :/

I think the people found someone to blame already (I don't think that needs an explanation, Internet has been extremely outspoken about this and nobody is faulting the teams working on the game for this).
I do sincerely hope this blows over and everyone involved (people laid off and the people having to shoulder the burden) can recover from this.

Perception is gonna be rough for a while though and I kinda hope this will get addressed publicly at some point.

[Knightspace]

Possibly. Smite went through some bad times already, always somewhat staying afloat, despite many changes which i, personally, find terrible.

But i haven't seen anything like this, so who knows.

[neonhigh]

Honestly, I'm not at all upset about how many god designer and balance devs were let go. It's always been the series weakness. Personally I think we need more female leads for female characters so we don't end up with literal bikini models for every deity.

[forever_alone]

Originally posted by Xienen:

Originally posted by Lorska:

I don't actually believe this is about that some people got laid off.

A 50% workforce cut isn't "tough times", that's a gross overreach to even get to this point.
The fact it hit people that are known and liked by the community too is gonna be a massive blow to the public image and I'm actually not sure how to recover from that.

Considering it also hit people that publicly were working on introducing new smite 2 content is an even worse look...

I can't really fault anyone for being very worried about the future here, because instead of letting go of people working on smite 2 why is there no effort to increase monetization? Like why is this happening days before the introduction of the battle pass? Where are the skins to keep paying for those jobs?

And yes I'm aware of the absurdity of asking to be monetized, but if the alternative is just throwing everyone out, what is the point...

I absolutely understand people on the outside looking in are worried about the future of this game, because they don't know the history of Hi-Rez nor the experience and capabilities of the team that remains.

That's the point, people know. A simple google search can be done and you can ban me for saying facts, I've played all of your games believe me or not, but where are all those games now? Global Agenda, Tribes Ascend, Realm Royale, Hand of the Gods, Rogue Company, now Paladins, Smite. There were some other games, that Divine Knockout thing I guess, several mobile games.

That's the point why all players are concerned because the company objectievely creates fine games, not great, but fine and fun to play, then some of higher-ups decisions are made that are not liked by the community, and you lose community.

As for the Rogue Company, making it the first year like an Epic Games Store exclusive during the fight between Epic and Steam where the majority of players just didn't like the EGS was another mistake resulting in a lot of people not playing that game since the beginning and when you made it to Steam it already got too late.

And the community could understand the layoffs of eSports guys since the game is still in beta, not finished. But laying off people who are responsible for technical parts of the game like god's porting, isn't it supposed to slow down the whole process?

[HighLanderPony]

Originally posted by Pteraptoruz:

Originally posted by Xienen:

I absolutely understand people on the outside looking in are worried about the future of this game, because they don't know the history of Hi-Rez nor the experience and capabilities of the team that remains.

That's the point, people know. A simple google search can be done and you can ban me for saying facts, I've played all of your games believe me or not, but where are all those games now? Global Agenda, Tribes Ascend, Realm Royale, Hand of the Gods, Rogue Company, now Paladins, Smite. There were some other games, that Divine Knockout thing I guess, several mobile games.

That's the point why all players are concerned because the company objectievely creates fine games, not great, but fine and fun to play, then some of higher-ups decisions are made that are not liked by the community, and you lose community.

As for the Rogue Company, making it the first year like an Epic Games Store exclusive during the fight between Epic and Steam where the majority of players just didn't like the EGS was another mistake resulting in a lot of people not playing that game since the beginning and when you made it to Steam it already got too late.

And the community could understand the layoffs of eSports guys since the game is still in beta, not finished. But laying off people who are responsible for technical parts of the game like god's porting, isn't it supposed to slow down the whole process?

I still remember how the release version of Smite Tactics had placeholder art from PALADINS.

Lmao wat.

[Thombussy]

It looks bleak but if we all hop on the doom train again we're just gonna be in the same boat. I don't like it at all, and we all know that there are a FAIR number of them that will cause several content creators to re-evaluate their relationship with Smite. Just waiting for everything to either implode or them to stick to their guns and push out a good game.

[Xienen]

Originally posted by Lorska:

It's also just a case where there is just no way to make this look good, even your statement of everyone remaining being capable just insinuates that half the company wasn't (sufficiently) :/

I agree that there's definitely no way to make this look good, but I am in no way insinuating that half the company wasn't capable. I can't prevent people from mincing my words and jumping to conclusions, but I don't believe that for a second. We had to let some truly talented people go yesterday and it should be noted that a good number of the people laid off yesterday were not working on SMITE 2.

Originally posted by Lorska:

I do sincerely hope this blows over and everyone involved (people laid off and the people having to shoulder the burden) can recover from this.

Perception is gonna be rough for a while though and I kinda hope this will get addressed publicly at some point.

We will rise, this is not the end of SMITE, far from it!