Hi-Rez Studios announced their library of games, including SMITE, will support cross-progression and cross-play in 2019.
Starting in Season 6
Cross-play and cross-progression will go live with the 6.1 patch, the first patch of Season 6, which is estimated to release in mid-to-late January 2019.
The platforms supporting the cross-features are PC, Xbox One and the newly announced Nintendo Switch version. PlayStation 4 is not joining the party yet, but Hi-Rez hinted that they are ready to implement it when Sony gives the approval.
“We are technically ready to support cross-play on other platforms as the opportunity arises,” Hi-Rez stated in an FAQ.
The finer details about cross-play
Cross-play will be “enabled by default” in casual modes, but players have the option to only play with and against others using the same “input method.” Microsoft recently added keyboard and mouse support to Xbox One, and Hi-Rez will be supporting SMITE with it, which is why Hi-Rez made the distinction of input method instead of platform.
SMITE players can only play ranked modes with and against other players using the same input method.
Voice chat will be supported between all cross-play platforms.
More about cross-progression
Any accounts on different platforms that become linked will effectively become one account, merging all content owned.
There will be some exceptions; for example, skins that are exclusive to each platform.
Players will not be refunded if they have purchased the same item on multiple platforms.
Only one account per platform can be linked to the same Hi-Rez account. Accounts can be unmerged, but Hi-Rez’s FAQ stated:
“However: If you unlink an account after it has been merged, all progress and purchases will be removed from that account, and it will essentially become a new, level 1 account.”
More links
For more information about cross-play and cross-progression, see Hi-Rez’s official FAQ.
In March, SMITE Scrub published an opinion piece about how cross-play and cross-progression could positively affect SMITE.
For more SMITE announcements from the Hi-Rez Expo, see here.
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