The team of SMITE 2, a game on Steam, has already seen several employees leave at the beginning of the year 2025. This resulted in too many people in leadership positions, which is why some cuts were made here as well.
What is the current situation at Hi-Rez? Around 4 months ago, approximately 70 employees were reportedly laid off from Hi-Rez. This affected individuals from various areas, such as designers, UI artists, and e-sports talents.
This has apparently created an imbalance between mid-level and senior positions. Hi-Rez decided that it had too many employees in senior positions and also laid off some staff in the leadership team.
SMITE 2 developers make cuts in the leadership team
Who is affected? ThorDG was a designer at Hi-Rez and posted on X that there were layoffs in the leadership team. His tweet was shared on Reddit, where some from the development team responded.
Executive Producer Alex Cantatore revealed that there were a handful of layoffs in the senior department last Thursday. Even Stewart Chisam, the president of the studio, is leaving the company this month. Executive Producer Travis Brown is also among the laid-off employees.
Cantatore shared an office with Brown for years and worked with him for a “very, very long time.” He would miss him greatly.
Radar is another affected individual, known as HiRezRadar on Reddit, and also speaks out. This is one of many layoffs he has experienced. The community is one of the most passionate ever, and he is grateful to have worked in such an influential place.
What does this mean for the game? As Cantatore added, this should not impact the game SMITE 2. The team continues to plan to release a new hero every two weeks and focus on the main game.
SMITE 2 has been in Early Access since August 2024. According to Steam, this phase should last until early 2025. However, it is currently more likely that the release will be postponed to late 2025 or 2026.
MeinMMO demon Cortyn is a big fan of MOBAs. In fact, one game has particularly captured our demon, even though it has long been considered dead: The best MOBA has been dead for 2 years – but that’s exactly why we’re still playing it
