Hi-Rez splits into three new studios

Hi-Rez Studios has announced that it is establishing three new, separate developers.

The company, known for its free-to-play multiplayer games such as Paladins and Smite, is dividing its resources into a trio of new studios that will be overseen by a general manager.

The three new studios are Titan Forge Games, Evil Mojo Games, and Heroic Leap Games. Each of these will be responsible for handling one of the company’s ongoing projects. Titan Forge Games will man the helm of Hi-Rez' MOBA Smite. Evil Mojo games will oversee the Overwatch-like shooter Paladins, while Heroic Leap games will develop Realm Royale, its Battle Royale spinoff originally known as Paladins: Battlegrounds.

“The establishment of Titan Forge, Heroic Leap and Evil Mojo as standalone studios enables each of our development teams to fulfill their maximum potential and stay hyper focused on serving their individual player communities," Larson said. “Our games are built to provide near constant updates over many years. By giving each major game its own dedicated studio and identity, we empower them to control their own destiny and focus exclusively on their player communities.”

Hi-Rez’s support for Paladins, Smite, and Realm Royale has been pretty consistent. “By structuring ourselves in this manner, we allow the organization to scale to multiple games more easily, while ensuring our existing game communities receive a better, more focused service than ever before."

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.