Smite, the mythology-themed free-to-play MOBA from Hi-Rez Studios, has officially launched on Xbox One, the developer announced today.
The official release of the game marks the end of the Xbox One beta for Smite, which saw one million unique users participate. Those that participated in the beta will see all of their progress and purchases transfer over to the official game.
“With over one million participants in our beta, there is clearly an appetite for the right MOBA on console. MOBAs have historically been a PC-only genre, but Smite’s action oriented gameplay is a great fit with the Xbox One controller. The strong player retention we’ve seen during beta makes us confident that this is just the beginning for console MOBAs and console eSports,” said co-founder and COO of Hi-Rez Studios Todd Harris in a press release.
Smite will also have its first official Xbox One tournament at the Major League Gaming World Finals from Oct. 16-18 in New Orleans. The winning team of the MLG tournament will receive $25,000 and a spot in the MLG Pro League, which has 6-8 teams facing off and one of those teams will qualify for the Smite World Championship, which will be held Jan. 7-10 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia. The Smite World Champion is actually two different tournaments: one for PC and one for Xbox One. 10 PC teams will be competing for a $1 million prize pool. The Xbox invitational will have four teams competing for a $150,000 prize pool.
Smite, while technically free-to-play, features an in-game marketplace where players can purchase new gods (characters to play as), cosmetic skins for those gods, and more. Linking your PC and Xbox One account will grant you a free Zeus Xbox skin to use on both versions of the game. Players looking to spend a chunk of change up-front instead of ala carte can do so by picking up the Smite Founder’s Pack for $29.99. The Smite Founder’s Pack includes all 67 gods currently in the game plus all future gods released down the road (Hi-Rez is planning to release a new god every month on Xbox One), 400 Gems, the exclusive Ares “Soldier of Fortune” skin, and the limited Ymir “Cacodemon X” skin.
Last month, Smite saw the addition of its 10-millionth player across both PC and Xbox One and Hi-Rez Studios celebrated the occasion by releasing a retro skin for the Hercules god unit, dubbed Retro Herc, and a new voice pack for Hercules, featuring the voice talents of Kevin Sorbo, known for playing the Greek mythological hero in the 1990s television series.
