Today SMITE developer Titan Forge Games and publisher Hi-Rez Studios announce an upcoming collaboration with the popular VTuber agency VShojo.
Six VTubers (virtual YouTubers) associated with the agency will appear as skins in the game with Update 10.5 on May 16.
The skins are Ironmouse for Persephone, Nyanners for Serqet, Silverdale for Skadi, Kson for Nemesis, Apricot for Izanami, and Veibae for Nu Va. You can see them in action in the trailer below.
The lineup is certainly interesting, considering that half of them (Nyanners, Veibae, and Silverdale) are quitting VShojo to pursue an independent career, but we shouldn't be surprised as this kind of collaboration is usually agreed upon months in advance, so it was probably too late to reverse course. It's also worth mentioning that the collaboration doesn't include the whole VShojo lineup. I suppose the popular Projekt Melody, despite being a prominent member of the agency, may have been considered too unsafe for work (or for play, given the game's T rating) by Hi-Rez Studios, albeit this is just my speculation.
On the other hand, you may be familiar with Kson even outside of her VTuber career as she was one of the winners of the audition for Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. As a consequence, she will appear in the upcoming game by Sega and she has a chance to land a role in Like a Dragon 8 as well.
Smite is currently available for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Collaborations with other franchises are quite common. For instance, recently we saw an extensive one with Wizards of the Coast's Magic: The Gathering, and another with G.I. Joe.
