Hi-Rez Studios is an American

video game company The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...

. The company was established in 2005 by Erez Goren and Todd Harris. Hi-Rez Studios' games include the squad-based shooter ''

Global Agenda ''Global Agenda'' is a class-based shooter online team-based game by Hi-Rez Studios developed using Unreal Engine 3. ''Global Agenda'' was started in 2005 as the studio's first project. The game went live on February 1, 2010.Tribes: Ascend'', the third-person MOBA ''

Smite ''Smite'' is a 2014 free-to-play, third-person multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, and Amazon Luna.hero shooter A hero shooter is a subgenre of shooter games that cover both the first-person shooter and third-person shooter genres. These games emphasize "hero" characters that have distinctive abilities and/or weapons that are specific to them. Game desig ...

Paladins The Paladins, also called the Twelve Peers, are twelve legendary knights, the foremost members of Charlemagne's royal court, court in the 8th century. They first appear in the medieval (12th century) ''chanson de geste'' cycle of the Matter of F ...

'', and the third-person shooter ''

Rogue Company ''Rogue Company'' is a free-to-play multiplayer tactical third-person hero shooter video game developed by First Watch Games and published by Hi-Rez Studios. The game was released in open beta on October 1, 2020 for Microsoft Windows via the E ...

''. In 2012, Hi-Rez Studios was recognized as a Top 30 Video-Game Developer by Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra. Hi-Rez are the current owners of the ''Metaltech'' license, including '' Battledrome'', '' Earthsiege'', ''

Starsiege ''Starsiege'' is a mecha-style vehicle simulation game developed by Dynamix and released in 1999. ''Starsiege'' is set in the Metaltech/ Earthsiege universe, which contains its predecessors '' Earthsiege'' (1994), '' Battledrome'' (1994), and ' ...

'', the ''

CyberStorm ''MissionForce: CyberStorm'' (commonly referred to as ''CyberStorm'') is a turn-based strategy game developed by Dynamix and published in 1996 by Sierra On-Line. The game is set in the Metaltech universe created by Dynamix, and the player contro ...

'' series, and the ''

Tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

'' series. With the exception of ''Battledrome'' and ''CyberStorm'', the games were released as freeware by Hi-Rez on October 30, 2015.

History

Erez Goren founded Hi-Rez Studios with Todd Harris in 2005. They hired experienced game developers from other successful titles, including ''

City of Heroes ''City of Heroes'' (''CoH'') was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game which was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSOFT. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on Febru ...

'', '' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'', and ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

''. Hi-Rez Studios employs more than 450 people at its development facility in the northern Atlanta suburb of

Alpharetta Alpharetta is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and is a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 US Census, Alpharetta's population was 65,818 The population in 2010 was 57,551. History In the 1830s, the Ch ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, and

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in the UK. In August 2018, the company split into four separate studios: Titan Forge (responsible for SMITE development), Evil Mojo (responsible for Paladins development), Heroic Leap (responsible for Realm Royale development. This studio later merged with Evil Mojo), and Alacrity Arthouse (responsible for Centralized Art Services). In 2019, Hi-Rez Studios announced the creation of a new studio, Red Beard Games, based in the Brighton office. The team is currently working on Divine Knockout.

Games developed

''Global Agenda''

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

game released on the

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

platform, introducing Elite and Free Agents and an in-game cash shop featuring Agenda Points.

''Tribes Universe''

'' Tribes Universe'' was a

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

arena shooter An arena shooter is a subgenre of shooter games and multiplayer games that cover both the first-person shooter and third-person shooter genres. These games emphasize fast paced movement in enclosed map designs that foster engagement between play ...

developed by Hi-Rez Studios based on the ''Tribes'' series. The game, along with Hi-Rez Studios' ''Tribes'' intellectual property 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 canceled when Hi-Rez Studios decided to start working on ''Tribes: Ascend''.

''Tribes: Ascend''

'' Tribes: Ascend'' is a

multiplayer-only

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

and part of the ''

'' franchise. It was announced by Hi-Rez Studios on March 11, 2011, at the

PAX East PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX was ...

, 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. Aspects from previous ''Tribes'' games such as jetpacks and skiing are featured in the game. Hi-Rez Studios representative Todd Harris announced the company's abandonment of the game on July 12, 2013.

''Smite''

Smite ''Smite'' is a 2014 free-to-play, third-person multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, and Amazon Luna.free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

third-person

MOBA Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that im ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

, and

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. 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 on May 31, 2012, for PC. An open beta followed on January 24, 2013. The beta process produced more than 74 million hours of playtime and a large competitive community. Throughout the beta, Hi-Rez Studios also hosted a series of LAN and online events with cash prize pools. ''Smite'' was officially released in North America and Western Europe on March 25, 2014, for the PC. On August 19, 2015, Hi-Rez Studios released the Xbox One version, and on May 31, 2016, the PlayStation 4 version was released. On February 19, 2019, the Nintendo Switch version was released.

''Paladins''

'' is a

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...

team-based game. The player has to pick a champion each with unique abilities to fight. There are four types of groups: Damage, Support, Flank and Front Line. The current version of the card system permits pre-designed loadouts that provide augments to various abilities and stats, as well as “items" that can be purchased by credits. To get credits the player has to play and fight others. Items can be upgraded mid-match to provide additional performance bonuses.The game was announced on August 5, 2015. ''

'' went into open beta on September 16, 2016, and released on Steam as an early access title the same day.

''Rogue Company''

'' is a

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by First Watch Games. Rogue Company entered closed beta in June 2020 on

, and on

via the

Epic Games Store The Epic Games Store is a digital video game storefront for Microsoft Windows and macOS, operated by Epic Games. It launched in December 2018 as both a website and a standalone launcher, of which the latter is required to download and play gam ...

, and included full support for

cross-platform play In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. It is ...

and cross-progression.

''Jetpack Fighter''

''Jetpack Fighter'' is a

high speed platformer for mobile. The game was released first for iOS on January 7, 2016, and Apple editors featured it as a Best New Game. As of July 27, 2016, the game has been released on Android. The game has earned a metascore of 83.

''Divine Knockout''

''Divine Knockout'' (DKO, for short) is a third-person platform fighter developed by Red Beard Games, in

. DKO started its closed Alpha in early 2022 and on November 22nd, 2022, announced that the game release date is going to be December 6th where the game is going to be available for PC (through Steam and Epic), Xbox One and Series X, S, PlayStation 4 and 5. On November 30th, 2022, Hi-Rez announced a partnership with

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

, where Divine Knockout's Founders Edition is included with PlayStation Plus during the month of December, 2022. The game was released on

, and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

on December 6, 2022.

References

External links

Official website
{{Hi-Rez Studios 2005 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) American companies established in 2005 Companies based in Fulton County, Georgia Video game companies established in 2005 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Privately held companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)