Titan Forge Games has confirmed that its beloved free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) Smite will continue to be playable for as long as fans want to play it, even after the upcoming release of Smite 2.
Smite 2 was announced today (January 12) and promises vast improvements to its visuals, overhauls to its playable characters, and much more. It’s currently planned to begin alpha playtesting this spring, so players will presumably be able to dive in within a few months.
In a press briefing attended by TechRadar Gaming (TRG), it was clarified that there’s still a dedicated (albeit smaller) team working on Smite while other developers focus on the sequel. With that said, no new gods (playable characters) will be added to the original after the upcoming 130th one.
Furthermore, speaking to TRG, Titan Forge Games asserts that “they are different games, and we intend to keep treating them as different games.” Smite’s executive producer, Alex Cantatore, explains that while the existing Smite player base enjoys “very hardcore features,” Smite 2 offers an opportunity for the team to “reset that complexity level.” With the sequel, the developers can focus on making a “few core things in the map as interesting as possible, without just layering more and more on top of it.” He adds: “It’s slightly a different design philosophy between the two games.”
In addition, Cantatore tells us that a large part of the decision to keep Smite running was to ensure that the team was “really respecting our players and the time and the money and the attachment that they have” to the original. Also, ultimately, the developers “want to make sure players are happy.”
“If you want to keep playing Smite 1, it’s awesome that you should be able to keep doing that for as long as you want to keep doing it,” he explains. “Especially if you have a PS4 and you can’t afford a PS5, or you have an older PC, you know, we want to make sure that there’s still a Smite for you that you can go out and play. And some people are gonna prefer that.”
Smite 2 is slated to release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Looking for more games like Smite? You can find some excellent games to play with friends on our list of the best multiplayer PC games, as well as some fantastic budget-friendly options in our roundup of the best free games.
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