Diehard fans of the iconic MOBA SMITE received a double dose of good and bad news recently. First the good – developer Hi-Rez Studios announced that after 10 years, it is releasing a sequel called SMITE 2 in spring 2023. But the bad news is that none of the original game’s 1,600+ cosmetic skins can transfer over to the new Unreal Engine 5-powered game.
Why? According to Hi-Rez art director Sherri Harney, manually moving each existing SMITE skin into SMITE 2 would take their team 246 years worth of work. And the upgraded visuals in the sequel mean simply copying over the old skins as-is isn’t feasible either.
“It was a hard call we made early on,” Harney explained during the SMITE 2 announcement livestream. The original SMITE is known for its diverse array of skins drawing from pop culture and mythology, from RWBY to G.I Joe to Slipknot. But remaking every skin to take advantage of the sequel’s improved graphics would take two months per skin, according to fellow art director Ben Knapp.
To help ease the blow for dedicated SMITE fans who invested real money in skins over the years, Hi-Rez unveiled a couple olive branches. First there’s the “Legacy Gems” system, which will award SMITE 2 players currency proportionate to what they spent in SMITE. And all players will have chances to earn free skins through the “Divine Legacy” event tied to progress in both games.
So while long-time fans can’t bring their collections to the sequel, they aren’t starting totally from scratch either. And for anxious SMITE players, Hi-Rez also confirmed the original game isn’t going away. It will continue to receive updates “for the foreseeable future” even after SMITE 2’s release.
So while the Brandon Rogers skin you cherished can’t follow you to the shiny new sequel, SMITE 2 promises to deliver the same addictive moba action that made the original a hit – just with massively upgraded next-gen visuals. And Hi-Rez is trying to reward veteran players for their loyalty in the process.
