Smite 2 won't launch with all the original game's content because just porting the skins would take "about 246 person-years of work," so the devs are giving you money instead

Smite 2
(Image credit: Hi-Rez Studios)

Smite 2 is making a clean break from the original game, and it won't launch with all the content you might've bought in the MOBA over the years. As a result, developer Hi-Rez Studios is giving you money back for every penny you've spent in Smite.

"For every Gem that you’ve ever spent in Smite 1 - free or purchased - you’ll receive a Legacy Gem in Smite 2," as the devs explain in an official FAQ. "Legacy Gems can be used to pay for 50% of the price of most in-game purchases in Smite 2 - so things like skins, Battle Passes, and events in Smite 2 will be half-off until you spend all of your Legacy Gems."

So you're basically getting half of all the money you spent in Smite 1 back in Smite 2. If you purchase a Founder's Pack for Smite 2, however, your Legacy Gems will be doubled, effectively making this incentive a full refund via in-game currency. Hi-Rez Studios hasn't announced how much those Founder's Packs will cost, but if you've dumped any serious cash into Smite over the past decade, that might end up being quite a deal.

Smite 2 is promising a "multi-generational leap" over the original, moving from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal 5, and that means that the devs have had to rebuild everything from the ground up. As a result, the sequel is ditching a lot of the original game's content. "To just port every skin to Smite 2 would take about 246 person-years of work," the devs explain. "And we couldn’t both do that, and make Smite 2 as amazing as we knew it could be if we focused on starting anew."

For now, Smite 1 will continue to operate independently of Smite 2, which is set to offer its first alpha test in spring 2024.

Smite is one of the best MOBAs out there.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.