Hi-Rez Studios

Hi-Rez Studios, Inc.

Type	Privately Held
Industry	Video-Game Industry
Founded	2005
Headquarters	Alpharetta, Georgia, United States
Key people	Erez Goren Todd Harris Stew Chisam Mike Dudgeon
Products	Global Agenda Tribes: Ascend Smite
Number of employees	100+[1]
Website	hirezstudios.com

Hi-Rez Studios is an independent, privately held video-game developer based in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States. The company was established in 2005 by Erez Goren and Todd Harris, and is now one of the largest video-game studios in the southeast United States. Hi-Rez Studios' games include the squad-based shooter Global Agenda, the critically acclaimed Tribes: Ascend, and the third-person MOBA Smite (stylized as SMITE).^[2] In 2012, Hi-Rez Studios was recognized as a Top 30 Video-Game Developer by Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra. ^[3]

About

Erez Goren, a successful entrepreneur and video-game enthusiast, founded Hi-Rez Studios with Todd Harris in 2005. They hired experienced game developers from other successful titles, including City of Heroes, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Call of Duty.^[1] Today, Hi-Rez Studios employs more than 100 people at its development facility in the northern Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta.^[1]

Games Developed

Global Agenda

Global Agenda is an online team-based game. The game went live on February 1, 2010. In April 2011, Global Agenda became the first free-to-play game released on the Steam platform, introducing Elite and Free Agents and an in-game cash shop featuring Agenda Points.^[4]

Tribes Universe

Tribes Universe was an upcoming massively multiplayer online shooter developed by Hi-Rez Studios based on the Tribes series. The game, along with Hi-Rez Studios' Tribes IP acquisition from InstantAction, was first announced on October 23, 2010. While alpha testing was said to begin at the start of 2011, development on Tribes Universe was halted when Hi-Rez Studios decided to start working on Tribes: Ascend.^[5]

Tribes: Ascend

Tribes: Ascend is a free-to-play multiplayer-only first-person shooter and part of the Tribes franchise. It was announced by Hi-Rez Studios on March 11, 2011, at the PAX East, and released on April 12, 2012. Tribes: Ascend earned a metascore of 86, and PC Gamer ranked it at #8 in an article on the Best Shooters of All Time. ^[6] Aspects from previous Tribes games such as jetpacks and skiing are featured in the game.^[7]

Smite

Smite is a free-to-play third-person (dubbed 3D Action) MOBA. Players take on the visage of mythological deities from different pantheons and take part in arena combat, using powers and team tactics against other player-controlled deities and non-player controlled minions. Hi-Rez Studios announced Smite on April 21, 2011, at PAX East, and began its closed beta period in May 31, 2012. An open beta followed in January 24, 2013. The beta process produced more than 74 million hours of playtime and a large competitive community.^[8] Throughout the beta, Hi-Rez Studios also hosted a series of LAN and online events with cash prize pools.^[9] Smite was officially released in North America and western Europe on March 25, 2014.

The weekend following its release, Hi-Rez hosted a Smite Launch Tournament in Atlanta where the eight best teams from Europe and North America played for a prize pool of over $200,000 USD, half of which was raised by the community from sales of a character skin.^[10] Team Solo Mid from Europe won first place, with Team Dignitas from North America taking second place. Viewers at home could make their own predictions for a chance to win various prizes.^[11] According to Hi-Rez, the event drew more than 400,000 unique viewers worldwide.^[12] After the event, Hi-Rez added a custom-branded skin in honor of Team Solo Mid's victory.^[13]

In May 2014, Hi-Rez announced the Smite World Championship Series (SWC). The SWC began with three months of regional qualifiers, which culminated into two separate $50,000 regional LAN events for Europe and North America.^[14] The Smite World Championship took place January 9-11, 2015 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, and featured a prize pool of $2,612,260; Hi-Rez provided a $600,000 starting pool, while the remainder was raised through community contributions and exclusive content sales.^[15] Prior to the event, Hi-Rez revealed that the World Championship will feature teams from North America, Europe, China, Brazil, and Spanish-speaking Latin America.^[16] Cognitive Prime from North America won first place and 50% of the pool, while Titan from Europe took second and 20% of the pool.^[17]

Controversy

Hi-Rez has been criticized by gaming communities, mostly regarding their mismanagement of Tribes: Ascend and Global Agenda.^[18][19] In 2013, Hi-Rez Studios announced they will do no more updates for either game, but planned to maintain active servers and customer support for both video-games.^[20] Yet these claims came after many months of server instability; the company has gone silent on Tribes as a whole despite promising they would be releasing mapping tools not long after the end of life announcement. ^[21]

On August 6, 2013, Hi-Rez took down the company forums with less than 24 hours' notice, saying that social media platforms would become the substitute despite not controlling certain communities or informing their moderators. ^{[22] [23]} The original post cannot be found on any of their developer blogs, but is quoted widely. In removing their forums, Hi-Rez erased many public criticisms on a variety of subjects such as game balance, poor network performance, and lack of support. However, an incomplete backup was created and uploaded by users.^[24]

CEO Erez Goren was banned from Reddit on September 24, 2014. In an attempt to create excitement for an upcoming "spiritual successor" of Global Agenda, Goren broke one of the five key rules of the site by asking users to upvote his thread.^[25] This was soon reported by users which resulted in his shadowban from the website, making his posts inaccessible to all users.

References