The SMITE World Championship is coming to an end, with Epsilon and Enemy fighting each other in the grand finals at the time of writing in order to win the best part of a million dollars. Despite the amazing games and the huge prize pools, probably the most interesting part of this SWC has been the keynote hosted by Hi-Rez COO and co-founder Todd Harris, talking about what's to come for their games.
For SMITE, 2016 will see the start of a whole new Pantheon. In fact on January 12th, Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, will be the first god of the Shinto pantheon to be included in the game. The Japanese mythology is full of interesting myths and legends to take inspiration from for new gods to be included, so this is a welcome addition to the roster. The release of Amaterasu will also start a new Japanese-themed multi-week event named Rising Dawn. Season 3 of SMITE will also introduce the long awaited 3v3 Joust League as well as a new 3v3 map, inspired by the Sky Temple from the "Journey to the West" Chinese legend. The new cinematic trailer for the game has also been released. You probably saw it already but it's so cool that it's worth a second glance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mVYnfJS73U Hi-Rez also released their first mobile game. Jetpack Fighter is now out in all english-speaking territories to be downloaded from the app store for selected iOS devices. Additional markets (and hopefully an Android version) will be included in the next months. To celebrate the event, one of the heroines of the game, Leona, will come in SMITE as an alternate skin for Nemesis while the goddess of revenge will be playable in Jetpack Fighter.
Finally, a note on Paladins. The class-based team-oriented FPS currently in closed beta will see a weird addition to its roster. Grover, the treant Sylvanus rides around in SMITE, will be the next playable champion in Paladins.
Additionally, Hi-Rez announced that this Spring the first Paladins tournament will take place with a $100,000 prize pool. More info about the game will be revealed during the year.
What you think of this keynote? Are you interested in what's been revealed? Let us know in the comments.
