Smite has now been released. Try the game for free here, check our Smite guide and our Smite review.
Smite wasn’t launched! Who knew? Hi-Rez’s curious 3D MOBA has made waves enough to attract the attention of Riot Games owners Tencent and been roundly played by its public, all before its official release. Such is the strange state of contemporary PC games development, where nothing can ever be so binary as to be ‘in-development’ or ‘finished’.
So Smite isn’t out-out, but it soon will be. On Tuesday, March 25, it’ll launch in Europe and the US ahead of a $100,000 celebratory LAN tournament.
Smite has acquired some 2,500,000 registered players to date, which rather weakens its argument for not-being-released-yet. And its passage from extended open beta to release won’t be marked by the usual total resets and new beginnings. All players will carry over their progress, and those who’ve reached level 30 before the launch date will unlock a Cacodemon skin for Ymir, one of Smite’s playable gods.
Instead, Hi-Rez will mark the occasion with a tournament on the weekend beginning Saturday, March 29. The top four teams of both Europe and North America, determined by a weekly series beginning in January, will compete in front of a live audience in Atlanta, Georgia. It’ll be livestreamed too on Twitch, of course.
You can go and sign up to play Smite in open beta right now. Its blend of a LoL-like metagame with third-person action seems to have resonated with, well, at least 2,500k people. Just don’t say it’s released, okay?
Hi-Rez downed tools on Tribes Ascend this summer in favour of pushing ahead with their MOBA. Are you still a player of their bouncy FPS?
Smite has now been released.Try the game for free here, check ourSmite guideand ourSmite review.