Less than six months after laying off an estimated 70 people, Smite 2 developer Hi-Rez Studios has made another round of cuts. But this time, rather than rank-and-file employees, the layoffs are focused on "senior management positions" near the top of the company's food chain.
The layoffs were first reported last week by former Hi-Rez designer ThorDG, whose message on X was quickly shared to the Smite subreddit, where Smite executive producer Alex Cantatore weighed in to confirm "a handful of layoffs in senior management positions" last week.
"Stew [Hi-Rez president Stewart Chisam] is transitioning away from Hi-Rez as part of this," Cantatore wrote. "Travis [executive producer Travis Brown] and Radar [lead producer Tony Jones] were also affected, as well as two folks in senior management on the Rally Here side of the business. I am very sad to be losing all of them.
"Essentially, the board's rationale was that the company had a lot of senior management in relation to our current size. This does not affect our core mission, or any other people working directly on Smite 2. We will continue to focus our efforts on improving the core game and new player experience, while adding more Gods at our current one-per-two-weeks pace."
In a separate post on LinkedIn, Chisam confirmed that he's leaving Hi-Rez, writing that his departure "has been discussed for a long time [with Hi-Rez CEO Erez Goren], but the timing was finally right."
"The last few years have been difficult for Hi-Rez, and for the industry," Chisam wrote. "Certainly not everything has worked out as we hoped, but I think we also have left a unique footprint on the industry—and tried to carve out a space as a mid-size cross-platform games-as-a-service pioneer, relentlessly fighting against giants. The team that remains is absolutely incredible and I know they will enjoy success. The effort and passion they have for the players and for the Smite IP is unmatched."
Jones also confirmed on LinkedIn that he's leaving Hi-Rez "as part of some recent restructuring."
The past couple years, as Chisam said, have not been very good to Hi-Rez. The studio announced Smite 2 in January 2024 with a promise to support both the original game and the sequel, but the wheels came off that plan before the end of the year: In October 2024, Hi-Rez laid off an unspecified number of employees and closed two other games in order to "concentrate our efforts entirely on Smite 2, outside of small teams supporting light updates for Paladins and Smite 1." Earlier this year, Hi-Rez confirmed the end of development of major updates for Smite 1, Paladins, and Rogue Company.
