UPDATED: Hi-Rez Hit By Layoffs, SMITE 1, Paladins, And Rogue Company Reportedly Ending Updates

As Hi-Rez Studios and Titan Forge Games focus hard on SMITE 2 development, things seem to be changing over at the company for many. Last week I reported on the company's decision to pull the original MOBA from the Nintendo Switch citing their inability to get it up to snuff performance-wise. It was a bizarre explanation to me considering the game has been on the platform for almost 6 years.

Today it seems like things are going a bit further as we're seeing multiple employees at Hi-Rez post to social media saying they've been laid off by the MOBA's company.

Paladins CM Kryptek posted a heartfelt message to players and co-workers on X (formerly Twitter) and we're seeing many similar posts come in from all over the board. Lermy, designer on SMITE, posted "I don't even know what to say, I've been laid off." This one seems particularly sad given that the company had Lermy on an episode of "Titan Talk!" which just streamed yesterday. On that episode, Lermy was talking about the bright future of SMITE.

Designer Ryan Bailey (Aggro) even took to X to post similar messages, and that's just the beginning of the list of designers, QA workers, marketers, and members of a number of other departments that seem to be impacted. The SMITE reddit now includes links to all known announcements so far.

As for the games themselves, there are reports that OG SMITE, Paladins, and Rogue Company are ending major updates. While the games appear to be staying online for now, don't expect any new content. While Hinduman has posted the below (image courtesy of Smurflulw on reddit) regarding SMITE 2 and its competitive scene, it does seem to confirm the layoffs themselves.

Other images (like the second image below courtesy of CheckMate2719 on the Paladins reddit) from Discord posted on reddit seem to confirm the ending of updates for SMITE, Paladins, and Rogue Company. While commentors allege the post could be from a partner/cloud Discord, we have not yet been able to confirm that. Grain of salt that portion of the discussion for now.

All of this comes just 6 months after a previous round of layoffs at the company while it "re-organized" around a SMITE 2-focused future. Those were layoffs CEO Stewart Chisam said reflected "failures in his leadership." As of this writing, Chisam's Twitter account is no longer active.

We'll keep this piece updated as we learn more or if we hear back from our requests sent to Hi-Rez, but it looks like SMITE 2 just became the only way Hi-Rez survives.

UPDATE: CEO Stewart Chisam wouldn't confirm the exact Discord message above, but did acknowledge to WSB-TV News in Atlanta that the team did send out a similar message in a content creator Discord. He also told the channel, “Over the past two years, the video game industry has experienced a historic downturn. Sadly, this has affected our business and our games. Today, we had to let go a number of very talented employees to help ensure we can survive in this tumultuous climate and continue to serve our loyal game communities. We’re working as much as we can to support employees impacted by this necessary move.”

UPDATE 2/7/2025: CEO Stewart Chisam confirmed to Kotaku that the layoffs impacted 70 employees. He also gave them a quote similar to the one above given to local Atlanta news. As of this moment, the company has still made no official announcement.