Hi-Rez Studios, the guys that brought us Smite, Paladins and the latest battle royale themed offshoot thereof, Realm Royale, have decided to split into three internal studios so as to allow for proper focus on each of the company's games.
To be perfectly frank, I can't say I've seen this coming but it would seem to make sense. Smite has been around for a while and has a healthy playerbase worthy of devoting more focus to, whereas Paladins has long established itself as a mainstay in Steam's top 10 most played, with quite the pop to match.
To make matters even better for the company, Hi-Rez managed to capitalise on the battle royale craze as well. Having begun its gaming path under the name Paladins: Battlegrounds, Realm Royale has become a beast in its own right, not least for delivering a unique take on the existing battle royale concept.
Either way, it's time to start getting used to the new names. The newly formed studios are called Titan Forge Games, Evil Mojo Games and Heroic Leap Games and they'll be in charge of Smite, Paladins and Realm Royale, in that order.
The company's team has grown significantly in the meantime, so it makes sense from an organisational aspect as well. Hi-Rez's Chris Larson pointed out that each of the three games were built to last and be updated for a while, so the split will "empower them to control their own destiny and focus exclusively on their player communities."
The holy trinity of Titan Forge, Evil Mojo and Heroic Leap will steal be headed by a general manager, who'll be overseeing operations on a larger scale. Larson also pointed out that structuring Hi-Rez Studios in such a way has an added perk in easier scalability to multiple games, without having to disrupt the existing structure.
Hi-Rez Studios didn't give us a date on when we can expect this change, although it's fair to assume they'll need some time to lay down the scaffolding. Well, except for Paladins, whose tempo of would suggest they got two studios in the process.
Paladins, Hi-Rez Studios' mega popular co-op shooter
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