The open beta for SMITE on the Xbox One kicks off this week, July 8 to be precise. But here’s the interesting thing: it’s launching with Australian servers from the get go.
The Xbox One version of SMITE has been in closed beta for a while, but getting local servers going for the public launch gives SMITE a greater chance at success here in Australia. Seems like a great point of difference.
“We’re delighted to offer SMITE communities the best possible experience on PC and now console, and we are impressed with the growth of the game on PC in Australia. We are pleased to support the release of SMITE on Xbox One with dedicated Australian servers from next week,” said Andy Anderson, Xbox One Senior Producer, Hi-Rez Studios.
It seems as though the game will be running on the local infrastructure already set up for the PC version of the game as opposed to running on Microsoft’s Azure servers. Either way — good news for local players.
SMITE on the Xbox One is an interesting sell. On the one hand, the MOBA genre is a very PC focused genre, on the other? SMITE is a very accessible MOBA, with a control system that would appear to work well with a traditional controller. It’s very action focused and might work well with players looking to ease their way into a traditionally terrifying genre.
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2 responses to “SMITE Is Launching On The Xbox One With Australian Servers”
It’s nice to see that regional servers are becoming practical enough for games like SMITE to take advantage of them. They’re pretty much essential for a game like this but they’re a big ongoing cost for a relatively small part of the market.
While SMITE may not use it I’m liking that Azure is both pressuring developers to address the issue and offering them a reasonable way of providing regional support. The difference between Gears of War and Gears of War Ultimate Edition is amazing when it comes to match-making. Going from player hosted rooms to servers located everywhere is brilliant.
I always thought it was a shame they went with that vague Australian archetype character instead of picking a figure from Aboriginal mythologies.
They aren’t about to do that for one god though. And aboriginal mythology is probably the least known on a worldwide basis so they’ll go through a lot more before they touch on that