Smite’s Clash Royale-Style Spin-Off Put ‘On Hold’

Development has halted on Smite Rivals, the collectible card arena game for PC and mobile devices. Hi-Rez Studios says the project has been put on hold in order to focus on the original Smite and its successful first spin-off, Smite Tactics.

Smite Rivals, which made its public debut in playable form back in January at the Hi-Rez Expo in Atlanta, is Smite‘s answer to Clash Royale. Players create a battle deck featuring minions and deities from Hi-Rez’s popular action MOBA, then deploy those cards onto a three-lane battleground against their opponents.

Or at least that was the plan. A source close to the game’s development contacted Kotaku with word that the unnamed third-party studio working on Smite Rivals had been pulled from the project this morning, with no plans to pass it off to another studio or develop it internally. We contacted Hi-Rez Studios, who gave us the following statement.

We made a decision this week to put Smite Rivals on hold. While we are still excited by the general concept of Smite Rivals, it was clear after early testing that the game needed significant additional development before releasing. With Smite Tactics, our turn-based strategy game set in the Smite Universe, performing well, we have decided to focus our energies on that for the time being.