Smite developers provide reasoning for no cosmetic transfer

Ever since a sequel for the popular MOBA title Smite was announced, fans of the original game have in divided. While players do want to play the new esports title, they do not want to lose their entire inventory accumulated in the original game.

Most of them are asking for a way to carry forward the cosmetics as all the old characters are also coming to Smite 2. However, the developers have claimed it is currently impossible with the current studio size. Executive producer Alex Cantatore explains the situation.

No cosmetics carry-over

Talking to Jake Lucky, the developers at Hi-Rez Studios told the reasoning behind the decision. It would take a single person over 240 years to port all skins. Porting a single cosmetic can take up to eight weeks, which was not viable.

Since the older game was in Unreal Engine 3 and the new game was made in UE 5, the devs cannot copy and paste old cosmetics.

Smite 1 will not be carrying over player owned skins into Smite 2. The reason behind that is it would take 246 years for 1 person to port them all over… or 8 weeks per skin in the game

Something that caused a little backlash, so the Devs explained their resolution pic.twitter.com/7QvWBwxO9r

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) January 14, 2024

If the studio focused on bringing cosmetics back, they would not have time to focus on the gameplay aspects, balancing, etc. However, they decided that players would get legacy gems. These will allow players to buy cosmetics in Smite 2 at a 50% discount and 100% in some cases.

Player dedication showcase

The developers will also be adding ‘Divine Legacy’ which will enable players to show off their achievements inside the new game. These will include owning rare cosmetics, the total number of hours in the original game, etc.

While some fans were understanding and satisfied with the solutions, the developers provided, others called them out for chasing profits. While it may be true, Smite 2 will also be free to play, so the devs making new skins for profit is understandable.