The 30 million people who’ve played SMITE on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 4 are welcoming a whole new generation of Nintendo Switch gamers as today is early access launch day for Hi-Rez’s SMITE on the Switch.
Notably, because of Hi-Rez’s planned cross-progression system, you’re not going to have to choose between platforms; you can unify your account and move between platforms freely. Unless you’re on PS4. PS4 still does not play nice with others. Theoretically, once the cross-progression patch is live – it’s expected later this month – you’ll be able to merge your existing PC account with your Switch account and take advantage of everything you already own on multiple platforms.
“SMITE on Switch will receive the same premium treatment seen across all other platforms, including monthly updates, new playable Gods, balance updates, and events,” the studio says. “Cross-play is available for Xbox and SMITE players to cooperate and collide on the battleground. For veterans, SMITE has announced cross-progression, which allows players to access their Gods, skins, and progression across platforms.”
Here’s how that works:
“For cross-play platforms, there will be a global, cross-platform leaderboard. As players will be able to move freely from across platforms and input methods on a single account, all players will be tracked on the same leaderboard regardless of their main platform or control scheme. Cross-play will be supported across PC launcher, PC and Mac Steam, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. We are technically ready to support cross-play on other platforms as the opportunity arises. By default, casual matchmaking will find the best matches for players regardless of platform or input method. SMITE and Paladins players can choose to play only against players with the same input method (either keyboard and mouse, or controller) in casual matches. However, players will find higher quality matches, more quickly, by leaving cross-input matchmaking enabled. By linking your separate platform accounts to a Hi-Rez Account, you will effectively have one account across PC launcher, PC and Mac Steam, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.”
The game will ultimately be free-to-play, but there’s a $30 founder pack available right now that unlocks all current and future gods as well as grants a stack of gems and two skins and gets you into this test phase (apparently interchangeably being referred to as both early access and closed beta). Of course, if you already own all the gods on PC and are planning to merge your account for cross-progression, there’s not much incentive for you to buy the Switch pack right now.
Reddit thus far is reporting only minor issues since the launch an hour ago (for example, pack purchasers might need to restart to see all their gods).
