The popular god-slaying MOBA Smite launched on console way back in March 2014 and, at long last, Smite 2 is on the way, rebuilding the experience from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. However, nearly a decade on from the first MOBA to really stick the landing on PlayStation and Xbox, I’m perplexed as to why we haven’t seen this genre explode. While there was progress with League of Legends: Wild Rift, we need Smite 2 to finally kickstart a true console MOBA revolution.
Smite 2 is no doubt exciting in its own right, overhauling the entire experience for console players with a transition to Unreal Engine 5, physics-based abilities, new UI, and, of course, new God pantheons and system overhauls. If perfectly executed, it could be one of the best MOBAs ever made. But I actually hope Smite 2 achieves a greater purpose – for console players, at least.
When it comes to new MOBAs on PS5, PS4, and Xbox, there really hasn’t been all that much to write home about since the first Smite was ported onto consoles almost ten years ago. There’s a handful of MOBAs for us console folk, as well as some tangentially related hero shooters like Overwatch 2. But that’s it. Why haven’t we seen more, and, for those that have arrived, why hasn’t the genre taken off on consoles like it has on PC and even mobile. As much as I love Smite in isolation, and will no doubt love its promising sequel, I’m more excited about its potential knock-on effects for the console MOBA scene.
With the complex control schemes of MOBAs and the traditional click-to-move and interact system, I do understand why top titles like League of Legends or Dota 2 simply don’t work on consoles and why they’re still PC-exclusive to this day. These games would need to be fundamentally changed to land on PS5 and Xbox, as we originally saw with the release of Smite in 2015 on Xbox, which adopted a third-person perspective rather than the top-down view of MOBAs of the past.
It’s here that Smite has always stood out. By breaking the unwritten rule and making a third-person MOBA, or at least one more welcoming to a controller, the genre could finally make its move to console. Besides the Lord of the Rings-themed Guardians of Middle-Earth which released in 2012 to little impact and Smite’s console port in 2015, there’s been little else since outside League of Legends: Wild Rift (a console and mobile experience) and small splashes like Warlander.
Given the 40-million-player-success of Smite – which of course warrants the sequel that was just revealed at the Smite World Championship – it’s clear that the traditionally PC-centric view of the genre is rather restrictive. Just because the majority of MOBAs are on PC, doesn’t mean there isn’t a console audience at the ready.
Another bonus is that Smite 2 is already announced for consoles and is appearing straight away on wishlists on the Xbox and PlayStation storefronts, so it seems likely it’ll release on console at the same time as PC, rather than getting a port later down the line. With PS5 and Xbox players able to participate in that launch window hype, I’m genuinely hopeful it’ll be enough to inspire a MOBA revolution for consoles.
Until the release of Smite 2, I’ll keep expanding my roster of gods in the current game, while still diving into the best PS5 games and best Xbox games. Hopefully, one day soon a new MOBA will arrive and land on those lists too, be it Smite 2 or otherwise.