Hi-Rez Studios is removing the mantel of being a game studio and undergoing a transformative business process, to say the least. The community is biting its nails about what this means for the games they love dearly, but the people who are being put in charge know what they’re doing. Let’s break down the announcement and I’ll share some of my expert thoughts on the recent changes.
The announcement was posted to LinkedIn.
Hi-Rez Studios to Become Hi-Rez Ventures
This is just a means of branding themselves away from developing games and being a multi-channel organization that supports games and funds the development of games as well. The branding around “Hi-Rez” as the prominent owner of any particular game will likely disappear in the near future as “Hi-Rez” becomes a “parent company.”
The subsidiaries have already existed as modulars within Hi-Rez, but this reorganizes them into clearly defined self-contained entities. Titan Forge Games will develop the SMITE property. Evil Mojo Games will develop Paladins and maintain Realm Royale and Rogue Company. RallyHere continues to provide SaaS game solutions.
Erez Goren’s Return
Erez moved to the role of chairman in 2019, making Stewart Chisam CEO. With this move, Erez returns as CEO of Hi-Rez Ventures while Stewart moves to be the CEO of RallyHere. Both of them are very talented and Erez has a deep love for SMITE, so the company remains in good hands.
Reduction in Force
No official word yet on the numbers, but rough estimates from social media have placed it at around 10% of their workforce which could be as many as 50 employees. There’s a lot of chatter on social media as well regarding employees talking about others who were let go.
One thing that’s clear is that both SMITE and Paladins remain a top focus for Hi-Rez, with the recent reorg giving them back to their own clear line of ownership to their IPs. SMITE is Titan Forge, Paladins is Evil Mojo and it seems that experimenting may be out of the cards for a while with Realm Royale and Rogue Company moving to an unknown maintenance mode.
As big fans of SMITE on the site, we hope the best for the organization and that the impacted employees find homes rapidly. We also hope that the reorganization pays off and streamlines the continued development of SMITE and Paladins. Only time will tell from here.
