Despite a few run-ins with the Hindu religion over the portrayal of the goddess Kali, SMITE has managed to bring its holy war to open beta. Hi-Rez Studios today announced the arena-based combat game is now in open beta and the gods of Olympus (and many other religious figures) await your challenge.

In addition to the open beta launch, Hi-Rez Studios also announced its support and sponsorship of an upcoming SMITE competitive season that will include a launch tournament with a prize of $100,000. Additional details about the tournament and scheduling will be revealed in the coming weeks.

You can read the open beta patch notes here and check out the trailer below for a look at the newest content.


Hi-Rez Studios Celebrates SMITE Open Beta With New Content & Announcement of 100K Launch Tournament



SMITE, the free-to-play action online game, is now officially available for download to all PC gamers

ATLANTA. January 24th, 2013. Hi-Rez Studios, developers of free-to-play online action games, today announced the official launch of SMITE Open Beta for North America and Europe. Anyone interested in trying SMITE can create an account and download the game for free from http://www.smitegame.com.

Hi-Rez also announced their sponsorship of an upcoming SMITE competitive season, including a launch tournament with prizing of one hundred thousand dollars. Additional details on the 100K Tournament qualifications and schedule will be communicated in the coming weeks.

"SMITE has been our fastest growing game to date, with over 900,000 players participating in Beta already”, says Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios Chief Operating Officer.  “We’ve been giving out keys very liberally, but today we officially drop the key requirement in order to stress and stabilize our North American and European servers in preparation for release. We will continue to polish the game, release additional gods, and further refine the god and item balance over the coming weeks before a general release later this quarter."

All player progress and unlocks up until now will be preserved through Open Beta and into Release with no planned character wipes.

Also, a Limited Edition cosmetic skin for the frost giant Ymir will be awarded to all players who reach Level 30 during the Beta period.  That award will be granted upon SMITE’s official release.

The following new SMITE content and features are included in the Open Beta version:

  • Graphical upgrade of Conquest Map
  • Practice match against new AI opponent Ra
  • In-game Team & Roster Management
  • Ranked Team Conquest queue - Draft Picking for ranked and Challenge Conquest matches Improved Spectator Camera for Tournament Admins - including a 3-minute delay for spectators to prevent cheating and improved spectator controls (slow-motion, pause, rewind, fast-forward)
  • Refer-A-Friend Program

A patch overview is available on the SMITE YouTube channel, where you can also find the original gameplay video. Find SMITE on Facebook here.

About Hi-Rez Studios

Hi-Rez Studios was established in 2005 to create exceptional online interactive entertainment. In 2010 the company released their first title, the squad-based shooter MMO Global Agenda. In April 2012 the company released the critically acclaimed Tribes: Ascend, billed as the World’s Fastest Shooter. Hi-Rez Studios is now developing the upcoming action MOBA game SMITE. For more info visit www.hirezstudios.com or contact [email protected]


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our SMITE Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 14, 2016

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.

Comments