Dozens of developers reportedly impacted by another round of cuts at Hi-Rez Studios

At least 20 staff have lost their jobs following another round of cuts at Smite developer Hi-Rez Studios.

Whilst the layoffs have not been formally announced by the studio at the time of writing, members of the Smite subreddit (thanks, GameDeveloper), have collated statements from dozens of developers that say they were let go earlier today.

The layoffs – thought to be “massive” – come on the heels of the launch of Smite 2, which switched to a free-to-play model last month several months after its debut as a premium early access title.

“I’m heartbroken to announce that I was affected by the layoffs at Hi-Rez Studios today,” said broadcast producer, William Stonier.

“After 3.5 years working on a live broadcast production line, from graphics operator to technical director, and assisting throughout the studio, I am ready to take my next step forward.”

These cuts follow another swathe of layoffs back in October, when, as part of an “internal reorganisation and reprioritisation,” Hi-Rez Studios said it was “laying off some team members across Hi-Rez”.

“A little less” than 30 employees were also laid off as a result of Hi-Rez’s restructuring back in June 2023.

In January 2025 alone, over 750 developers have lost their jobs, with cuts and closures at Freejam, Splash Damage, Piranha Games, Jar of Sparks, as well as 185 jobs cut by Ubisoft.

This week alone, we’ve reported that ProbablyMonsters has initiated another round of layoffs, as well as job cuts at Iron Galaxy and Sumo Group.